The Presidency: An Unusual Ceremony

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The honeymoon destination was about the last secret that the White House had managed to preserve since the engagement was announced Christmas Eve. Right up to the wedding day, bits of hitherto classified information continued to dribble out. Pat disclosed to an interviewer that he was a Democrat after all, despite those rumors that he shared his parents' Republican loyalties. The President himself cleared up the question of how the young Nugents would support themselves while attending the University of Texas. Luci, he said, has an income of her own of undisclosed size and source, and Pat's parents, Gerard and Tillie Nugent, had set aside some money for their son's graduate-school education. Further, it developed that the couple would not receive a small ranch in Texas as a wedding present from the Johnsons—at least not yet. They would get, instead, a large savings bond, denomination secret (the largest has a face value of $10,000). Luci, the White House said, wanted it that way.

With nearly all the secrets gone, and the guests along with them, there ended the climactic day of a spotlight-spangled courtship and engagement. And, since it was a White House wedding, it was fitting that the President have the last word. "She'll have a family, just as many as the good Lord will let her," he said. "She'll have a houseful of kids."