Retired beyond reach of spotlight
LOS ANGELES – The day George H.W. Bush took over the Oval Office in 1989, the Gipper returned to Reagan Country beaming with an aw-shucks smile and dreams of chopping wood and riding his horse at his mountaintop ranch.
“There’s nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse,” the nation’s 40th chief executive said at the time, repeating an oft-quoted phrase.
Ronald Reagan basked in the glory of retirement, but then the slow death of Alzheimer’s disease robbed the life of the former president and he became a recluse under the protection of his wife, Nancy.
He filled his first post-White House years with $50,000 speaking engagements, nights on the town with Hollywood elite and trips to his beloved Rancho del Cielo north of Santa Barbara.
Reagan wrote in a 40th wedding anniversary tribute to Nancy in 1992: “We relax at the ranch, which if not heaven itself, probably has the same ZIP code. Nothing draws a couple closer together than to find a pretty spot, maybe a ukulele and a canoe – Nancy’s idea of the perfect romantic setting – and share happy thoughts of the past.”
For the retired cowboy-politician, staying at the ranch one week a month seemed fitting. On the way home, Reagan usually stopped by his presidential library in Simi Valley, midway between the ranch and his Bel-Air home.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library had opened in grand style in 1991 with an unforgettable moment as five presidents – Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Reagan and Bush – strolled the portico together.
Reagan thrilled passers-by when he went Christmas shopping at a mall near his Century City office, a lavish space atop Fox Plaza, the glass-and-granite building used in the 1988 Bruce Willis movie “Die Hard.” He loved lunches at the California Pizza Kitchen, as well as Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookies.
After a few hours at his office, visiting with old friends, posing for snapshots and gazing toward the coast for an afternoon glimpse of the Channel Islands, Reagan went home to work out in his basement gym.
Dinner at home meant his favorite meal: meatloaf, and macaroni and cheese. But in those early post-Washington years, Chasen’s restaurant, and the booth where he proposed to Nancy, was a frequent evening destination.
Then, on Nov. 5, 1994, the Great Communicator told the world in a poignant letter that he had Alzheimer’s disease. “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,” he wrote.
Reagan was rarely seen again publicly. For three years, he continued going to his office each day. He also played golf, walked the Venice boardwalk and attended Bel Air Presbyterian church on Sundays.
It became clear in 1999 that he was in the grip of Alzheimer’s disease. His daily visits to his office ended, and Reagan biographer Edmund Morris told the world of the former president’s deterioration in “Dutch, A Memoir of Ronald Reagan.”
“He will rake leaves from the pool for hours, not understanding that they are being surreptitiously replenished by his Secret Service men,” wrote Morris, who said Reagan had years earlier forgotten the name of his biographer of 14 years.
At the same time, Reagan’s son Ron said his father hadn’t recognized him for five years. Just before Christmas 1998, son Michael Reagan said his father has “good days and bad days.”
“My dad has not said my name in probably two years, but he knows me because I’m the guy who hugs him,” he said at the time.
“The disease is horrible, but he’s doing well,” daughter Maureen Reagan, who died of cancer in 2001, said at the time. “He makes it easy for us. He’s very lovable.”