Passed Presidents - # 40 – Ronald Reagan

In the spring of 2004, I made plans to be in Reno for another bowling Nationals tournament and then join Becky in Los Angeles.  I would finally get close enough to shoot Richard Nixon’s grave...the one farthest from home...a major catch.  A colleague at work joked that if I was lucky, Ronald Reagan would pass by then and I could get two.  Damned if that didn’t happen.

Our 40^th president died ten years ago today.  Ten years before that, in 1994, he sadly communicated to the nation that he had Alzheimer’s disease and was withdrawing from public life.  He died at 93.  Only Jerry Ford lived longer...by just 45 days.

The Gipper is one of only six presidents buried west of the Mississippi River.  As with Nixon, Reagan is interred on the grounds of his presidential library and museum. 

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, CA (21 June 2004)

Ronnie’s was not the typical career arc of American presidents.  After college, he was a radio sports announcer and then a successful Hollywood actor.  For eight years, he was head of the Screen Actors Guild.  Yes, the guy who every GOP pol can’t mention without genuflecting, was a union boss...and staunch Democrat at the time. 

But, once he became a Republican, the man carved out a place for himself on the conservative side and earned national attention.  However, that was when ‘conservative’ meant ‘right of center’, not right of Attila the Hun.

Ronnie and Rex (15 May 2011)

Taken from photos of presidents and their pets;

from an exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Reagan was twice elected governor of California...and so was ‘Ah-nuld’.  Makes me appreciate how the bluest of states can still be fine with moderate, Republican governors.  Reagan raised taxes and approved a liberalized abortion law.  When he was president, he actually WORKED with Democrats...to reach agreements...and get things DONE.  Shocking.

His two terms were dynamic and full of events and names that linger to this day.  The end of the Cold War with the Soviets.  ‘Reaganomics’.  Supply side and ‘trickle-down’ economics.  Iran-Contra.  “Just say No.”  Jelly beans.  Ollie North.  The Grenada invasion.  The ‘Star Wars’ or Strategic Defense Initiative.  The bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut.  Defeating Walter Mondale in 1984 with the biggest electoral landslide in history.  “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” 

‘Dutch’ Greets Visitors (21 June 2004)

So soon after the president’s burial and 
the remembrances were still piled high

Ronald Reagan’s legacy continues to be debated.  There were times when I thought he was a dim bulb, but he really knew how to connect with the people.  He changed Washington and the way we did things.  This is not the place to go on about whether all the changes were good (not all of them were) but I do appreciate that Saint Reagan had some positions that today’s GOP wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot tea bag.  I doubt he would have a place in the Republican Party today.

Ronald Reagan

40th President; Served 1981-1989

Born: February 6, 1911, Tampico, IL

Died: June 5, 2004, Los Angeles, CA

Grave Location: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and 
Museum, Simi Valley, CA

Date Visited: 6/21/2004

  

The 2004 images are scanned from slides.  I hope one day to return and make better digital versions...especially at the Reagan site.  He was interred only a few days before and the final tomb exterior was not yet finished.