MIAMI – The daughters of former President Nixon met Tuesday in an attempt to resolve their two-year dispute over how to spend a $20 million bequest for their father's presidential library.
No agreement had been reached in the daylong, court-ordered meeting, but Tricia Cox said she and her sister, Julie Eisenhower, were making progress. The session was continuing late Tuesday.
"It's been a very good and productive day," Cox said while walking arm-and-arm with her sister during a break. "Julie and I have always loved each other for more than 50 years and we always will."
Two off-duty police officers guarded the floor of the closed meeting room at a downtown hotel. The participants emerged only for breaks and while the air conditioning was briefly being repaired.
In June, a judge ordered the daughters to meet with longtime Nixon friend Robert Abplanalp, estate trustees and representatives of the Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif.
Another of Nixon's friends, Key Biscayne banker Charles Rebozo, left 65 percent of his estate to the library when he died in 1998 on the condition that the sisters and Abplanalp approve the spending.
The sisters can't agree whether the library should be operated by the family, which is Cox's choice, or by a 24-member board, the preference of Eisenhower and the library foundation.
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