Bronze statue pays tribute to Nancy Reagan's 100th birthday
Only sculpture of late First Lady without `her Ronnie' unveiled at museum
A slightly larger-than-life bronze statue of former First Lady Nancy Reagan was unveiled Tuesday in the culmination of a centennial celebration of her 100th birthday that began last year.
The wife of late President Ronald Reagan would have turned 101 years old on July 6.
She is seated on a bench in the Terrance J. Lanni Family Rose Garden at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum overlooking Simi Valley, with a basket filled with peonies — her favorite flower — after returning from a walk in the garden.
She is wearing a skirt suit and heeled shoes along with a bronze version of her platinum and diamond wedding ring, the original of which is displayed in the Early Years gallery of the museum.
Under the basket is a folded copy of a July 16, 1985, edition of The Washington Post with a headline, “Grace Under Pressure,” a reference to her response to her husband's cancer surgery.
“There would be not have been a successful Ronald Reagan without Nancy Reagan,” said Linn Booth of Bel Air who attended the ceremony.
A small piece of the Berlin Wall is designed inside the fold of the newspaper — added as a tribute to the support she provided to her husband as he diplomatically worked to end the Cold War with the Soviet Union and bring down the Berlin Wall.
The First Lady, who died in 2016 at the age of 94, sits on a 2,960-lb. bench made from historic New England granite used on prominent buildings, including the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York, the foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge and Grand Central Station in New York, South Station in Boston and the AT&T headquarters in New York City.
It is 18 inches high, 84 inches long,
and 28 inches deep with the hand-cut words “Partner, First Lady, Bridge Builder, Protector and Caregiver” engraved on it.
The 500-pound sculpture was designed by North Carolina artist Chas Fagan who also designed statues of Ronald Reagan at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, the Rotunda at the U.S. Capitol and a bas relief in the Reagan National Building in Washington, D.C.
“When I think back about moments with Ms. Reagan all I can do is smile,” Fagan said. “And that feeling is what I wanted to capture.”
The statue was trucked in from the East Coast and lifted by a crane onto the museum patio, which had to be reinforced.
Reagan has a slight smile on her face as she peers toward the museum with her back to the mountains. “Her eyes are looking … straight through the library where (President Reagan) rests facing the Pacific Ocean,” said Fred Ryan, chair of the library foundation board.
This newest statue of the First Lady is the only one of her alone on the library grounds without “her Ronnie.”
Other statues on the grounds include Ronald Reagan in the main courtyard and one of him on a horse near the Air Force
One Pavilion.
A statue of Nancy and Ronald is in the museum foyer and one in the museum's gallery of the former president with Mikhail Gorbachev, the general secretary of the Communist