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L. Carrol, 83, Is Dead; Gave Nixons Dog Known as Checkers

Lou Carrol, an unknown traveling salesman from Texas whose spontaneous act of generosity one summer day in 1952 — packing a puppy into a crate and shipping it to two little girls in Washington named Tricia and Julie — has been credited with altering the course of American history, died on April 3 in Highland Park, Ill. He was 83 and lived in Barrington Hills, Ill.

Mr. Carrol's death, which was made widely public only recently, was reported by the Solimine Funeral Home, in Lynn, Mass., his hometown. No cause was announced.

The puppy, a black-and-white cocker spaniel named Checkers, became a famous political asset for the girls' father, Richard M. Nixon, then the Republican vice-presidential candidate. In a nationally televised address in September 1952, Nixon, responding to charges of fiscal impropriety, invoked Mr. Carrol's gift to sentimental effect.
Read entire article at NYT