Who would have thought it? It turns out that the late Philly legend Chef Tell was personally sponsored for citizenship by his close personal friend… former President Richard Milhous Nixon. Here’s the story:
Chef Tell’s route to American citizenship involved Richard M. Nixon, who after he had resigned his presidency often visited his daughter Julie and her husband, David Eisenhower, in Pennsylvania. On occasion they visited Chef Tell’s eponymous restaurant in Wayne.Bunny, the chef’s wife of 19 years, said that on one visit in 1986, Nixon asked the chef if he voted. Chef Tell said he could not, as he had been unable to become a citizen. Nixon joked that lack of citizenship was no barrier in Chicago, where noncitizens always voted. The next day someone called to say that the former president had sponsored him for citizenship, and a month later Nixon spoke at the ceremony at which he took the oath of citizenship.
Go Nixon, go.
