Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan, Sr., was an American politician, actor, and the 40th President of the United States. He starred in over 50 films and was the 33rd Governor of California. But the thing he is remembered for by most is the fact that he was the President of the United States from January 20, 1981 to January 20, 1989.
Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. “Dutch,” as his father had nicknamed him, and the rest of his family moved several times to multiple cities in Illinois, including Chicago. He was a Democrat for the majority of his earlier life. Early in his life, he was a lifeguard, and over a six-year period, he reportedly performed 77 rescues. He attended Eureka College in Illinois in 1932, and graduated with a C average.
He served in the military from 1937 to 1945, but due to eyesight issues, he was never on the battlefield.
However, he was a captain.
Reagan starred in many films, including “Love Is on the Air” (1937), and “The Killers” (1964) and also starred in several early television shows such General Electric Theater (1954-1962). He had a long career and he met many people, including the woman he would soon marry.
On January 26, 1940, in Glendale, California, Ronald Reagan married Jane Wyman, a popular Hollywood actress. They had a long, nine-year marriage, but Jane didn’t like the idea of him getting into politics. So, in 1948, Wyman filed for divorce and it was finalized in 1949. However, later in ‘49, Reagan met the future First Lady: Nancy Davis. They dated for a while, then on March 4, 1952, in San Fernando Valley, California, they were married. The two had one of the longest marriages of an American President: 52 years. Reagan had five children, four biological: Maureen, who died in 2001; Christine, who died prematurely; Patti, who is 64 today; Ronald, Jr., who is 58 today; and Michael, whom Reagan and Wyman adopted. He is alive today at 71 years old.
For over half of his life, Reagan was a Democrat. However, in 1962, the Vietnam War took a major turn, and the Democratic Party changed dramatically; and not in a way that Reagan liked. He switched to the Republican Party, and he remained that way for the rest of his life. Four years later, in 1966, Reagan ran for Governor of California; and he won. He was part of some major events in Californian history, and he remained Governor for eight years. In 1974, though he was widely popular as Governor, he did not run for re-election. On January 6, 1975, he was succeeded as Governor by Democrat Jerry Brown.
In 1976, Reagan ran for President of the United States, attending the Republican National Convention and running for the nomination against then-incumbent President Gerald Ford. He lost the nomination to Ford, but the Republican Party lost in 1976 and Jimmy Carter was elected as the 39th President.
Though saddened about losing the Republican nomination in ’76, he didn’t give up; in 1980, he secured the nomination. In a presidential race, the candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win; Reagan won 489 electoral votes to Carter’s 49. And on January 20, 1981, Reagan took up his new office.
Ronald Reagan is known as one of the greatest presidents of all time. Per a C-SPAN poll conducted in 1999, Reagan was listed as the 6th most-liked President. And during his presidency, approval ratings fluctuated, but were usually high. Reagan is known to have done extremely well with the economy. His economic plan, or “Reaganomics,” as the public deemed them, came into swift action when the dollar had been extremely devalued during Carter’s term. He also dealt with a few crises, such as the Iran-Contra Affair and the Challenger disaster. In the 1980s, the world began to see an end to the raging Cold War. Reagan gave a speech in 1987, most famous for six words that made the war take a turn: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” In 1984, he was challenged by Walter Mondale of the Democratic Party in another presidential campaign. And in that year, Reagan gave the biggest defeat in U.S. history; he defeated Mondale, the 42nd Vice President of the United States, with 525 electoral votes.
After the presidency, he retired to Bel Air, California, where he lived in retirement for15 years. He made public appearances, but he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1994, and his last public appearance was at Richard Nixon’s funeral. After being diagnosed with this disease that would plague him for ten years, he wrote a letter to America:
I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease… At the moment I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this earth doing the things I have always done… 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. Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.
On June 5, 2004, Ronald Reagan passed away at 1:09pm in his home in Bel Air, California. His Alzheimer’s disease had given him pneumonia, and he died at age 93. He was the longest living president for one-and-a-half years, surpassing the record of John Adams’ 90 years.. He was laid to rest on June 11, 2004, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
The final words of the 40th President are not known. However, his daughter, Patti Davis, issued a statement shortly after the event:
At his last moment when his breathing told us this was it, he opened his eyes and looked straight at my mother. Eyes that hadn’t opened for days, did. And they weren’t chalky or vague. They were clear, blue, and full of love. If a death can be lovely, his was. In his last moment, he taught me there is nothing stronger than love between two people, two souls… It was the last thing he could do in this world to show how entwined their souls are… and it was everything.
Ronald Reagan is known as one of the greatest presidents, as well as a good actor and politician. He dealt with multiple presidential trials, helped to fix the economy, and overall saved our country against the iron fist of Communism.
