Timothy Elbourne, aide to Nixon White House, 65
LOS ANGELES -- Timothy G. Elbourne, a Nixon White House aide who made unexpected news in 1974 when Soviet security men hustled him out of a Kremlin tea for first lady Patricia Nixon, died of natural causes Aug. 7 at his home in Idyllwild, Calif., said his friend, Sandy Quinn, of the Richard Nixon Library. He was 65.
Mr. Elbourne's encounter with two Soviet security men was the result of a misunderstanding.
He had been escorting press photographers into the tea, given by Mrs. Leonid I. Brezhnev. The rest of the press, according to an Associated Press account, was unaware of what happened until they saw Mr. Elbourne, "a Russian on either side of him being propelled across the room."
The Russians, the AP report said, apparently thought Mr. Elbourne was not authorized to be in the room.
"I give up, I give up," Mr. Elbourne was quoted as saying with a forced smile before a Secret Service agent and another White House aide persuaded the Soviet security agents to let him go.
Prior to the encounter, Mr. Elbourne had been passing out Mickey Mouse lapel pins to Soviet and American officials.
Mr. Elbourne had been an advance man for the Nixon administration from 1969 to 1973, when he left to become president of the newly formed Walt Disney Travel Co. The White House had asked him to come back to handle advance work for the Moscow trip.
Born in Pomona, Mr. Elbourne graduated from the University of Southern California in 1961 with a degree in journalism and public relations.
In 1966, about three months before Walt Disney's death, Mr. Elbourne became a special assistant at Retlaw, a Disney company.
In 1968, Mr. Elbourne joined his old USC roommate Ron Ziegler in the press operation of Nixon's presidential campaign. After Nixon took office, Mr. Elbourne was asked to join the White House staff.
During his Nixon years, he traveled widely preparing for media coverage of the president's domestic and international trips, including arranging coverage of Nixon's historic trip to China. 