•May 9, 2018•

By Jim Dunn
Of Sauk Valley Media

On Feb. 6, 1984, President Ronald Reagan was riding high as he celebrated his 73rd birthday in Dixon, Illinois, the county seat of Lee County and the town where he lived as a youth for a dozen years starting in 1920.

More than half a century earlier, Reagan had ventured forth from his hometown to earn a bachelor’s degree at Eureka College, class of 1932 – not an easy feat during the Great Depression.

Then he became a radio sports announcer in Iowa, an actor in about 50 Hollywood movies, president of the Screen Actors Guild, a television personality, and spokesman for General Electric.

Turning to politics in the 1960s, he served as governor of California for two terms and, on his third try, was elected 40th president of the United States.

His hometown birthday bash in 1984 found Reagan – tall, handsome and known for his sense of humor – in good spirits as he addressed a crowd that packed Dixon High School’s Lancaster Gymnasium.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.