Posted on 06/05/2009 1:18:41 PM PDT by Lucky9teen
On this day in 2004, Ronald Reagan, the nation’s 40th president, died at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Most historians give Reagan good marks for having lifted American confidence and for having managed the Cold War conflict with Soviets in its later stages.
Before embarking on a political career that brought him to the White House in 1981, Reagan spent two decades in Hollywood. Although he never became a top movie star, he appeared in more than 50 films and several television programs. His nickname “the Gipper” came about from his having played Notre Dame football star George “the Gipper” Gipp in the 1940 film “Knute Rockne: All American.”
In contrast to his friend Jimmy Stewart, who rose from private to colonel during World War II, Reagan couldn’t perform combat duty because of his poor eyesight. Beginning in 1942, he made military training films until his discharge in 1945.
During the late 1940s, Reagan became more politically conservative, influenced by his father-in-law, Loyal Davis, a wealthy Chicago neurosurgeon. In 1947, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on communist penetration of the film industry. Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and again from 1959 to 1960.
After leaving the Oval Office in 1989, Reagan moved to the Los Angeles area, often spending time at his California ranch, Rancho del Cielo. In November 1994, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Reagan wrote: “I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.”
After a state funeral in Washington, Reagan was buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. His wife, Nancy, still lives in California.
What I will forever remember is the out pouring of grief and respect by regular American people shown to President Reagan and how the major media just didn’t get it all of them they were just ‘shell shocked’ by it! It was one of the first times I think I can remember the media demostrating just how out of touch with the American people they were. How do you report on something you can even begin to understand? It was like if an alien (The out of spce kind not the wade across the border kind.) had land on the Washington Mall and made a speech in its native tongue which no one on earth knew how to translate and then they tried to report on it what the speech was about.
I remember that Tom Selleck was behind me in line and never even thought about asking to be moved to the front. It was an amazing day.
Five years already. The outpouring of grief was tangible at each step of his journey to DC and then to home in Simi Valley, CA.
Ronald Reagan deserves a Mt. Rushmore all by himself.
Sarah Palin is the only one who can take his mantle.
She is the only one that loves America as much as Ronald Reagan did.
Gosh, five years already, how I miss that man.
One of the greatest Patriots to ever live!!!
It didn't end there. Even the migrant workers stepped out of the fields in California and lined the roads to pay their respect on the final leg of the journey of the casket to the Reagan Library. I expect to be in California for a family wedding in a month and will make it a point to go to the library.
Totally clueless. They caught on later, but we already had the TV’s tuned to C-SPAN and I didn’t need to hear the alphabet media wax poetic on a great man that they had nothing but contempt for.
When I watched the national service, and saw Carter and Clinton, I was more than amused. When these two reprobates go, there will be NOTHING like the national outpouring of grief we as a nation felt during that time.
And the media never got it then, and doesn’t get it now. Ronald Reagan loved his country, loved his countrymen, and never let us ever forget, not for one day, what a special nation we had built here and how each one of us had a special stake in its continued prosperity.
When Carter goes, I plan to make a special visit to Plains, Georgia to pour a fine bottle of Scotch over his grave. But it will have to pass through my kidneys first.
We need you so badly now Mr. President. Say hi to Dad for me.
mrs
I remember coming home from work, turning on the news, and just standing in my living room and crying. And I'm not one to cry. I cried through his funeral. In May 2006 we visited the Reagan Presidential Library, and I stood by his grave and cried some more. If you ever get a chance to visit his library, it's well worth the trip.
I know. It’s like having a broken heart.
We can meet up at the airport and drive over together,I plan on leaving a six pack in tribute to Jimmah....
We made a point to go in 2006. We were in CA for my daughter's college graduation. She wanted to go with us, so we took an afternoon from all the pre-graduation festivities and went. It's well worth it.
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