Clara Jane Lemke

Clara Nixon, 70, who married Nixon's brother, Donald, kept silverware, tables, chairs and other Nixon odds and ends in the garage of her home in hopes that one day the items would be showcased in a museum. She also helped track down Nixon's boyhood piano, his high chair and even the bed in which Nixon was born. Nixon lived in Yorba Linda until age 9, when his family moved to Whittier.

"We dreamed of this day, and it's a dream come true," Clara Nixon beamed as photographers snapped her picture outside the tree-shaded home.

The birthplace has been restored and furnished as closely as Nixon family members could recall the way the house looked when he and his three brothers shared a cramped attic room.

"Frank and Hannah Nixon (Nixon's parents) would recognize this as their home if they walked in today," said Kevin Cartwright, director of public affairs for the Nixon Library & Birthplace.