Free Republic

DIXON, Ill. (AP) Ronald Reagan's death has drawn a steady stream of cars down the rural highways leading to Dixon, Tampico and Eureka, the often forgotten small towns where the only Illinois-born president grew up playing football and dreaming of Hollywood. Five times the usual number of tourists have crossed the porch of Reagan's boyhood home in Dixon daily since his death. Hundreds of others have discovered the Reagan collection at Eureka College, where he graduated in 1932. ``Whenever anyone passes away, it's a time of reflection. I think people want to touch and feel and have a connection,'' said...

June 8, 2004 (Springfield) — A stretch of Interstate 88, which passes near Ronald Reagan's birthplace and his boyhood home, was renamed Tuesday in honor of the late president. Gov. Rod Blagojevich issued an executive order declaring part of I-88 the "Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway." The east-west interstate runs along the southern edge of Dixon, where Reagan grew up, and 10 miles north of Tampico, where the nation's 40th president was born in 1911 in a four-room apartment over the general store. "Now, when people drive on I-88, they'll remember Ronald Reagan and everything he did for our country," Blagojevich...