When Qatar gave Donald Trump a jet, I started thinking about past gifts to politicians. Checkers came to mind. A Cocker Spaniel pup and a $400 million 747-8, and two men – both impeached Presidents – saying ‘we’re gonna keep it.’
To be fair to Checkers, the gift of the pup was not the scandal facing then-Senator Richard Nixon. And, to be accurate, the gift of the jet to Trump hardly caused a ripple of official outrage. Some tut-tutting but no action other than “you really shouldn’t have, but thanks” at the American governmental level.
In 1952, Nixon was the Vice-Presidential candidate running for the Republican party with Dwight Eisenhower. But charges were levelled that Nixon was misusing a fund that party donors had established to help defray political expenses.
The amount in question was $18,235. That is $224,229 in 2025 dollars – a substantial amount, yes, but hardly a blip on the grift-o-meter in Washington today.
In answer to this, Nixon went on television on September 23, 1952 and itemized his household and business expenses, his economies and his political gifts.
The dog who made a president
One other thing I probably should tell you, because if I don’t they’ll probably be saying this about me too, we did get something – a gift – after the election.
A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it.
You know what it was? It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl – Trisha – the 6-year-old – named it Checkers. And you know, the kids love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it. – Checkers Speech, Sept. 23 1952
And this section, toward the end of a half hour speech, was the winner. That’s why it’s known as the Checkers Speech, and not the Fund Speech as Nixon himself always called it. Telegrams of support from across the country flooded his office. Dwight Eisenhower slapped him on the back and said “You’re my boy!” Eisenhower and Nixon won that election and the next one in 1956.
Nixon lost his presidential bid to John F. Kennedy in 1960. To those who blamed the Checkers Speech for his loss, Nixon said that, without it, he wouldn’t have been around to run. In 1968, he ran again for president, and won. He won a second term too, and had to resign. Checkers couldn’t help with Watergate.
A gift from the great state of Texas
In July 1952, Pat Nixon told an interviewer that her daughters really wanted a dog. A travelling salesman thought he had the answer to their prayers. At home in Benton, Texas, his Cocker Spaniel Boots had a litter of pups, so he sent a telegram to Senator Nixon’s office:
“On behalf of the great state of Texas, I wish to offer the Nixons a cocker spaniel puppy, purebred and registered.”
Soon after, Lou Carrol and his wife Beatrice received a letter from Rose Mary Woods, Nixon’s secretary.
“Sen. Nixon was leaving Washington today and asked me to acknowledge and thank you for your … offering to send down a cocker spaniel puppy,.. The senator had been planning to buy a puppy for the little girls and they were particularly fond of cocker spaniels. I know therefore they will be delighted to receive this puppy.”
And so the puppy began a long train journey from Texas to Washington. Checkers lived with the Nixons for the next twelve years. On September 6, 1964 she died and was laid to rest at Bideawee Pet Cemetery in Wantagh, Long Island, New York. From the looks of family photographs in the Nixon archives, Checkers had a very happy life.
And it’s really only the photographs you can go by. For such a famous dog, very little information about Checkers is actually available. Even her obituary in The New York Times is more about the circumstances of the Checkers speech than about her life.
“I had no idea she’d be such a big deal”
Mr. Carrol gained some fame, or notoriety, by his gift to the Nixons. Not a real plus, maybe, being the man who gave the means by which Richard Nixon kept himself alive in American politics.
Although Lou Carrol turned up on the 1950s quiz shows “I’ve Got a Secret” and “What’s My Line,” he never received much publicity for his role in providing the sentimental element to Nixon’s career-saving speech.
“Nor was I seeking it,” he told the Baltimore Sun in 2002, the 50th anniversary of Nixon’s Checkers speech. “It was just one of those things you do spontaneously,” Carrol said. “There’s a joy in doing that kind of thing. Every time I’d see those children — those pictures of them and the dog and how happy they looked — it put a smile on my face.” – Los Angeles Times May 18, 2006
Lou Carrol died April 3, 2006 in Illinois, at the age of 83. He will always be remembered, I hope, as a man who did a good deed for two kids and a pup – just because “there’s a joy in doing that kind of thing.”
Checkers Speech or Fund Speech
As I said above, the gift of the dog was not the scandal facing Richard Nixon in 1952. It was about his siphoning off funds. No one gave a hoot about where his dog came from. But introducing a puppy and kids spoke to those sentimental about dogs and/or kids. It also gave the appearance of transparency – ‘I’m being totally honest and telling you everything’. And that provided the opportunity for a little jab at his opponents and the media – “they’ll probably be saying this about me too.”
Ironically, he was accurate in calling it “The Fund Speech.” That was the real issue. But the speech succeeded because of the dog story. Checkers was a diversion, a shaggy dog story of sorts, meant to lead you away from the real issue. And it worked.
Checkers is probably the most famous presidential dog who never lived in the White House. The prominence given to the little dog contributed to the popularity of Cocker Spaniels in the 1950s. September 23rd is National Dogs in Politics Day, also known as Checkers Day.
Bidewee Pet Memorial Park
The Pet Memorial Park is part of the Bideawee Animal Shelter. Its history, which goes back to 1903 in Manhattan, shows how much useful work society ladies can do with their wealth.
There was talk over the years about moving Checkers from Wantagh to the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California where Richard and Pat Nixon are buried. You can read more about that, and correspondence about her grave, in a 2010 post at Conelrad.
James Preller wrote about the pet cemetery, and Checkers’ grave, in his 2009 novel Bystander. In a blog post excerpt, he wrote something that will stay with me. Something that is true and still, from the ‘glass half full’ side, worth all of it.
He remembered something his father said, back a few years ago when Eric was lobbying hard for a pet. Eric’s dad replied, “Dogs are built-in heartbreak. Ten good years, two bad years, some giant vet bills, then they die and break your heart. It’s not worth it, believe me.”
That was sooo his father. Mr. Half Empty. “I wish I had a dog,” Eric said.
