Dixon Post Office renamed after President Reagan
Postal Service scheduled to issue centennially stamp in 2011
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DIXON — Today, the U.S. Postal Service renamed the building housing the Dixon Post Office in honor of former President Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s patriotism, charisma and optimistic confidence rallied the nation and made him one of the most popular Presidents of the 20th century.
“I am proud to introduce and pass this bill, which received broad bipartisan support from Members of Congress representing districts across the country,” said Congressman Bill Foster of the 14th District. “President Reagan spent his life upholding the strong values of small town America, but it is easy to overlook the humble Midwestern origins of a man whose career took him from Hollywood to the White House. Naming the Dixon Post Office after President Reagan is an acknowledgment of the importance of his years in Dixon, and it supports the efforts of so many committed local officials who will make Dixon and Tampico the true focal points of the upcoming Reagan Centennial.”
Joining Congressman Foster in the dedication ceremony was Great Lakes Area Vice President, Area Operations Jo Ann Feindt, United States Postal Service.
“It is most fitting that today we continue to honor Ronald Reagan’s legacy by naming the building housing the Post Office in his honor,” Feindt said. “The reasons for this are many, but most importantly, this is the place where he formed his core values, his belief in the inherent goodness of people and his belief that people could accomplish great things, not just because of their talent, but through their hard work and sheer willpower.”
Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth. The United States Postal Service will help kick of the Reagan Centennial Celebration by issuing a new commemorative stamp in his honor. This will be the third stamp the Postal Service has issued for Ronald Reagan.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico on Feb. 6, 1911, but he considered Dixon, where the family settled when he was 9, to be his hometown. A natural athlete and budding thespian, Reagan lettered in several sports and acted in school plays throughout his high school and college years.
In 1926, Reagan became a summer lifeguard in Lowell Park, located on the Rock River near Dixon, and is credited with rescuing 77 people during the seven seasons he worked there. After graduating from Eureka College in 1932, he sought employment as a radio sports announcer.
In 1937, Reagan went to California to and landed a movie contract with Warner Bros. During his years in Hollywood he appeared in more than 50 films.
Reagan was called up for active duty during World War II, but poor eyesight kept him from serving overseas. Instead he was assigned to the army’s motion picture unit in Culver City, Calif., where he narrated training films and appeared in patriotic military films. After being honorably discharged on Dec. 9, 1945, he resumed his Hollywood career. In 1957, Reagan costarred with his wife, actress Nancy Davis (whom he had married in 1952), in Hellcats of the Navy, their only film together.
Elected president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1947, an office he held through 1952, and again from 1959 to 1960, Reagan testified in that capacity before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
On Oct. 27, 1964, Reagan gave a nationally televised address endorsing Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. Although Goldwater lost the election to Lyndon B. Johnson, Reagan’s speech, a searing indictment of big government and Johnson’s “Great Society” programs, thrust him into the limelight as a leader of the conservative movement and effectively launched his political career. Two years later he defeated the incumbent governor of California, Democrat Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, by a landslide. In 1970 he was elected to a second term in office.
Pledging to reduce the federal government’s role in the lives of all Americans, Reagan was the frontrunner during the 1980 presidential primaries. He received the Republican nomination at the convention in Detroit and won a landslide victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter in the November election.
Adept at promoting his conservative agenda and deregulation policies, Reagan became known as the “Great Communicator.” He persuaded Congress to pass legislation aimed at curbing inflation, increasing employment, reducing social welfare programs and strengthening national defense. In 1984 he was reelected by another landslide, receiving an unprecedented number of electoral votes.
When Reagan left office in January 1989, he and former First Lady Nancy Reagan returned to California. Later that year, on Nov. 9, Communist East Germany opened its borders, including the Berlin Wall, to the West. This momentous event occurred less than two and a half years after Reagan’s famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate, in which he had boldly challenged Gorbachev to, “tear down this wall!”
In 1994, Reagan shared his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease with the American people in a moving, handwritten letter. After that he retired from public life and his family delivered periodic updates to the nation and helped raise awareness of Alzheimer’s.
On June 5, 2004, Ronald Reagan died in California at the age of 93, the longest-lived President in American history. His state funeral, the first to be held in Washington, D.C., in more than 30 years, drew hundreds of thousands of mourners, including past and present world leaders.
On Aug. 16, 2010, legislation to designate the Post Office building located at 405 W. Second St. in Dixon, as the “President Ronald W. Reagan Post Office Building” was signed into law by the President. The legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Bill Foster.
