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.
You wrote:”Ronald Reagan deserves a Mt. Rushmore all by himself.”
A bad day. They announced Reagan died and then Smarty Jones lost the Triple Crown at the Belmont.
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