Rooming with Reagan
Her father’s starcrossed past brings a St. Louis woman to Rome this weekend. Rita Chrivia checks out the site where her dad slept in a room close to Ronald Reagan.
A keen interest in genealogy and the desire to write a book about family history brought Rita and John Chrivia from St. Louis, Missouri, to Rome on Friday. Rita’s father, Frank Taylor, lived and worked in Rome more than 60 years ago.
Taylor worked for General Electric in the 1950s and came to Rome for sales training that lasted about six months. He stayed at the General Electric guest house, which is now the home of the culinary program at Georgia Northwestern Technical College on Cedar Avenue. Taylor was there when Ronald Reagan was in town on a promotional and also stayed at the guest house.
Reagan was host of the GE Theater, broadcast on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. on the CBS network. The future president started hosting the show late in 1954.
In a letter to his future wife, Chrivia’s mother — also named Rita — Taylor wrote, “He is sleeping here tonight so maybe I’ll meet him.” The next day, in another letter (those were the days when youngsters in love would write letters to each other on a daily basis), Taylor said, “Mr. Reagan visited the plant today… The girls at the plant almosted swooned at the very sight of him.”
Chrivia got the letters, which her mother had kept all these years, after her mother died in June of this year.
Her father died in 2013 and Chrivia said there was no indication that her dad had kept any of the return letters he got from his future wife.
One of the letters indicated it was her father’s duty while in Rome to help entertain dignitaries, and that in- volved driving outside of Floyd County at the time to purchase their beverage of choice. In fact, in one of the letters when his future bride said she might be coming for a visit, he responded back suggesting the type of beverages she should bring with her.
During a visit to the old house, known as Woodlee, Chrivia and her husband were given a tour by chef Greg Paulson and GNTC President Pete McDonald. Paulson explained his office is in the bedroom where Reagan slept.
A week after the Reagan visit, Taylor was featured in an article in the Rome News-Tribune about winning a speaking contest at the conclusion of a 16-week course on making effective presentations
conducted by General Electric. Taylor’s presentation was titled “Automation.”
“He was saying way back then they needed more automation to keep up with what was going on,” Rita said.
Chrivia and her husband also took a tour of the General Electric plant Friday with site manager Cody Platt.
She is writing a book about family genealogy and wanted to visit Rome since her father spoke about his brief time here often.
“Everybody here has been so nice,” she said. “This has been pretty exciting.”