Sun Sets on Reagan’s Rest in Santa Monica

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

June 8 -- The world’s gaze fell upon Santa Monica yet again Monday, as former first lady Nancy Reagan visited a local mortuary where the remains of her husband Ronald Reagan, the nation’s 40th president, have rested since his death Saturday.

Before departing, Mrs. Reagan, clad in a black suit and white pearls, stopped outside the Gates, Kingsley, Gates funeral home at the corner of 20th Street and Arizona Avenue to view the flags, notes, flowers and mementoes left by well-wishers.

Holding hands with her son and daughter, Mrs. Reagan waved to supporters before accompanying her late husband’s remains on a solemn drive to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, where the family held a brief prayer service.

Along the motorcade’s 40-mile route, motorists traveling in the opposite direction stopped to show their respects. Others parked on overpasses and stood silently by the railings.

Shortly after 93-year-old Ronald Reagan’s death early Saturday afternoon in his Bel-Air home, a storm of media and crowds numbering in the hundreds have descended on the small, family-owned mortuary that prepared the body for burial.

The crowds continued to come throughout the weekend, erecting a small memorial of flags and flowers that still adorns the front lawn of the funeral home.

“I was taken aback when I heard,” said Vicki Weber Saturday, who drove from San Pedro with her husband to pay her respects.

“He was the nation’s president, yet one of us, a Californian,” she said. “He walked on our beaches and hiked in our mountains. He was this country’s favorite son.”

The Webers sat Saturday evening away from the crowds and television crews, looking reflectively at the makeshift memorial outside the Santa Monica mortuary.

“He never wavered from his positions,” added Vicki’s husband of 45 years, Carry Weber, who wore a hat emblazoned with “WWII Vet” in honor of the 60th anniversary of D-Day. “He saw the world as good and evil, and that’s how it should be.

“His value system is what led his politics,” the veteran said. “It’s more than just the passing of a president, it’s the passing of an era.”

Reagan’s presidency -- from 1980 to1988 -- came as the Soviet Union he referred to as the “evil empire” collapsed. In speeches, he denounced Communism as a “defunct ideology,” and even visited Berlin, calling on the Soviet Premier to tear down the wall that was the physical manifestation of a world clearly divided between the two superpowers.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the end of the Cold War and was perhaps Reagan’s most lasting legacy.

A section of that wall stands at Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley where Mrs. Reagan, family and friends grieved privately on Monday, before lines of silent mourners filed past the solid black casket draped with an American flag.

The former president's remains will be flown Wednesday to Washington D.C., where national and world leaders will pay their respects, before it returns to the library grounds for a sunset burial Friday.

Throughout the weekend, the constant buzz of helicopters, the roar of police motorcycle engines and the overwhelming presence of a large media pool stationed outside the funeral home piqued the interest of local residents.

“I was out for a jog, saw the police and asked what was going on,” said 46-year-old Santa Monica Resident Mina Nims, who had tears in her eyes as she spoke Saturday afternoon. “He told me Reagan was dead. I was -- I was shocked.

Another resident, Gloria Lambden, handed Nims a tissue.

“He was a great man” said Lambden, who threw on a T-shirt bearing the words “Old Glory” and came “to be near the President,” after hearing the news on the radio.

“We’ve only known each other for the past three hours, yet here we both are, grieving,” Lambden said. “I just needed some closure, I suppose, with others who felt the same way.”

“I just feel so sorry for Nancy,” added Nims, referring to the former First Lady, who was married to Reagan for 52 years. “It was a long time coming I suppose, but it still must be quite a blow for her and her family.”

Mrs. Reagan addressed her husband’s slow decline due to Alzheimer’s disease last month at a benefit for increased stem cell research to battle the brain-degenerative disease.

“Ronnie’s long journey has taken him to a far off place where I can no longer reach him,” she said.

A decade ago, the two-term president and former California Governor told the world of his condition.

Many present at the mortuary Saturday said they hope Reagan’s death, though unfortunate, will help bring the disease into the nation’s consciousness.

“Maybe now more will be done to end such a horrible disease,” said Shannon Yoshikawa, a campaign worker for President George Bush who brought her three-year-old son along.

“I wanted to bring him here so he could know something of Reagan, who was a great president,” she said. “He may not understand now, but as he gets older, maybe he’ll realize where this man stood in history.”