Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois, the son of a shoe salesman with a drinking problem and a devout mother who believed in the goodness of people. He grew up in Dixon during the Depression, worked as a lifeguard, and learned to tell stories from his Irish father. He became a radio announcer, then a Hollywood actor, appearing in more than fifty films, never quite a leading man, but steady work, and he learned how to hit a mark and deliver a line with timing that would serve him the rest of his life. He married Jane Wyman, divorced, then married Nancy Davis, who became his closest adviser and fiercest protector.