Esther Parker, 94, a Nixon ‘Enemy’
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Esther Parker, a renowned horticulturist and avid horsewoman whose name was on one of President Nixon’s enemy lists in 1972, died April 1 at her Sherborn, Mass., home of pneumonia. She was 94.
Parker was among 490 people on a list submitted by presidential adviser John Dean to the Internal Revenue Service, according to the December 3, 1973, issue of the Dover-Sherborn Suburban Press. The paper noted that she was a registered Republican who had contributed a “modest amount” to the campaign of Democrat George McGovern, Nixon’s opponent in 1972.
“I have absolutely no idea why my name is on that list,” she told the newspaper. “I am a very quiet lady of advanced age who does a lot of gardening. … Most people don’t think of me as an enemy of anything but a bug.”
Parker was well known for her prize-winning camellias, and wrote gardening columns for several publications.
