Wednesday, June 9, 2004

Local GOP to honor Reagan Thurs. By MONROE ROARK mroark@TheCitizenNews.com As millions of Americans pay tribute this week to former President Ronald Reagan after his death Saturday, Fayette County residents are reflecting on what he meant to them and preparing for a special candlelight ceremony in his honor. The event is scheduled to begin Thursday at 8:30 p.m. on the lawn of the old courthouse on the Fayetteville square. Several people will read various speeches and writings of Reagan’s, and a bagpipe player has also been lined up to contribute, according to Marilyn Watts, one of the organizers of the event. The Fayette County Republican Party is sponsoring the ceremony, with assistance from the American Legion, Watts said. Watts fondly remembers a couple of occasions where she met Reagan while he was in office. While she chaired the Fayette Republican Women, she attended his second inauguration in January of 1985, when all events were moved indoors because the temperature was near zero. Reagan made a brief appearance at a reception for the Georgia delegation hosted by then U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich. On a separate trip to Washington, she was in a group touring the White House that saw Ronald and Nancy Reagan depart in their helicopter. She also met Reagan when he came to speak to a capacity crowd at the Omni in 1986, and she has a photo to commemorate the occasion. “He meant so much to all of us,” she said this week. “He was such a wonderful president; certainly the best of this century, since Theodore Roosevelt.” Her son Lane Watts, the current chairman of the Fayette County Republican Party, was a senior at Fayette County High School when he was invited to the Georgia Republican Party’s annual Presidents Day luncheon in 1990. At the time, he was head of the Georgia Teenage Republicans. Reagan was the speaker at the luncheon and Watts was able to shake his hand and make a brief greeting. “He just said hello and to keep up the good work,” Lane Watts said. “I was a bit tongue-tied, as you might imagine.” Fayette resident and retired military officer Jack Wheeler owes Reagan a debt of gratitude for his rise to two-star general in the U.S. Army. “He nominated me for general officer, so I’m beholden to him,” Wheeler said. All flag officers in all service branches (generals and admirals) are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, although most of them never actually meet the president. Wheeler nearly ran into Reagan, literally, the day he left the presidency. Wheeler was in California on military business, and the pilot of his helicopter got lost and flew into airspace reserved for Reagan’s plane, which was taking him home to California just after George Bush had been sworn in as his successor. The copter eventually landed at the same airport as Reagan’s plane and was immediately surrounded by police, Wheeler recounted with a laugh. When he retired from the military, he received a light-hearted notice of commendation for narrowly missing a collision with the plane. Bill Livsey, now retired and living in Fayette County, was a four-star general who led all American forces in Korea for three years during Reagan’s administration. He did not meet Reagan, however, although he did meet Bush and Jimmy Carter while they were in office. “All of the military though he was the cat’s meow,” Livsey said of Reagan. “He really helped us [the military] get back on our feet.”