Exclusive Report by Larry Greenfield, Executive Director, Reagan Legacy Foundation

Part 2: Eureka !

After the wonderful celebrations at the Reagan Day dinner on Friday evening, we returned to Eureka College early Saturday morning, February 6, to begin our special day - the 99th birthday of Ronald Reagan.

Continental breakfast with Eureka College friends and officials featured brief remarks by Michael Reagan, and more remembrances of Dutch Reagan's college years, before we all boarded the Peoria Charter Bus to Tampico, Illinois.

Our bus full of special guests was treated to more stories.  One special story - In 1931, the integrated Eureka College Red Devils football team was turned away from an overnight stay at a local area Tavern due to racial segregation/discrimination, so Ronald Reagan took his black teammates to his own modest family home in Dixon for the evening. This story was held private for many years, until it was revealed to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall as rebuttal to unfair racial political attack on President Reagan.

Anyway, the landscape of central Illinois was beautiful...snow on the ground under a bright sunny day.  Morning in America again!

We arrived to Tampico, birthplace of an American hero, born on February 6, 1911, in a small room in a small apartment above the bank/bakery.  There was no running water upstairs in the $10 a month unit.

In the house, we saw such interesting items as a 1908 Sears Roebucks catalog, an upright piano, rocking chairs, the original wood flooring, and a stove and a skylight.  And a family Bible, opened to 2 Chronicles, 7:14, the passage later read at both swearing-ins of President Reagan.  

By the way, older brother Neil was also born in the same room to parents Nelle and Jack Reagan.

One fond memory from the folks in Tampico:  On the day before President Reagan's election in 1980, there was a rainstorm. But on election day, a double rainbow arrived in Tampico!  Two terms as President were gloriously foretold in his beloved birthplace.

From Tampico, we followed in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan to Dixon, his boyhood home.  We saw the house with pennies cemented into the fireplace floor and enjoyed memories of a wonderful boy who taught Sunday school, but once got in trouble with local authorities after playing with fireworks.  (An early sign of resistance to big government?)  Dad had to fork out $14.85 to get Dutch out of the pokey....almost exactly a month's rent of $15.00.

South Central school, legendary years as lifeguard in Lowell Park (saving 77 lives it is told from the strong currents, including perhaps a young lady or two dying for rescue from the handsome Ronald Reagan), and the library, where young Dutch read books that inspired him to request baptism in 1922, at age 11, and to begin his dreams of the west.

Our special day included a wonderful luncheon at Sauk Valley Community College, hosted by President George Mihel and the great staff and friends of the Dixon community.

Michael Reagan spoke of the tremendous meaning for him to return to the roots of Ronald Reagan, to meet and mingle with the community who remember him so fondly, and to help to continue the legacy of President Reagan through the Reagan Legacy Foundation scholarships and educational projects.

Snow on the ground, sun in the sky, friends everywhere, cake, colors, flags, gift shops, posters, flowers, photos, smiles, and many warm memories, past, present, and now future.

Cheers to humble beginnings, and eternal values of family, faith, friendships and freedom.

Ronald Reagan, son of Illinois.  Father of modern conservatism.   A treat to re-discover the place where it all began, and where the beat of the American heartland continues strong.