[Family

One of the few Reagan family photos, taken in Tampico, Ill., in 1913. Left to right, John Edward ("Jack"), Neil, Ronald and Nelle Clyde. Dutch would have been near 2.

Photo credit: Dixon Evening Telegraph. For an alternate view of this photograph, select here.




Return to the Table of Contents


























  
[Jack Reagan] [anecdote]Jack Reagan was a small town salesman and a Democrat in a conservative, Republican town in the Land of Lincoln. A drifter and perrenial traveling salesman, Jack longed for an urban escape from his rural background. Orphaned at six and shuffled from relative to relative, Jack lived a rootless adolescence. Of necessity, he became adaptative and ingratiating. He was a flamboyant salesperson, self-promoter, hopeful child of depression years, the "orphan charmer."

In a constant search for advancement, Jack moved his family throughout Illinois: Tampico, Monmouth, Galesburg, and Dixon. His sons lived mobile childhoods, in rented places and from suitcases. From 1917-21, age 6-10, the Reagan boys attended a different school every year. Reagans lived in 5 places in Dixon, 4 in Tampico, 2 in Galesburg, all rented.

A job at Marshall Field's Department Store in Chicago's South Side which seemed like the chance to get out of the country and into the city at last, proved disastrous, forcing the Reagan's into two years of utter poverty, lasting until Dutch turned four years old. Finally, Jack secured a job that returned the family to rural Galesburg and economic security, if not prosperity. Dutch would later describe this part of his childhood, "Our family didn't exactly come from the wrong side of the tracks, but we were certainly always within the sound of the train whistles."

From there, the Reagans moved to Dixon, Illinois, where Jack partnered with general-store owner H.C. Pitney, to open a high-quality shoe store, The Fashion Boot Shop. Eventually Jack became co-owner only to lose it in the Great Depression.[anecdote]

Ronald Reagan remained in Dixon from age nine to age twenty-one.

For more information on Jack Reagan, connect to the Reagan Family Tree.
Return to the family album.
























  

Jack Reagan, refused to patronize a hotel which boasted about its prejudice against Jews. "No Jews you say," Jack Reagan stated, "Now, I am a Catholic -- maybe you don't like my kind, either." He slept in the cold car that night, an ordeal later contributing to a heart attack. Jack Reagan taught Dutch and Neil to stand up for their convictions. Later, the adult Ronald Reagan would refer to his father's refusal to allow him to see the film "Birth of a Nation," because it dealt with the Ku Klux Klan, as an important factor in shaping his beliefs concerning individual action to combat prejudices.[]

These lessons came home to Dutch when, in college, he faced discrimination against black members of the Eureka football team[] and even in Hollywood.[]

Return to Jack Reagan.
Return to the family album.

































  
[Nelle Reagan] Like her husband, Nelle Clyde Reagan dreamed of being an urban person (she was a "smart" dresser, stylish performer in local theatrics, with literary ambitions). Though she never went to high school, Nelle made sure that her sons could read before they attended elementary school.

She loved the arts. A "frustrated actress," she performed with her son. When Dutch was young, Nelle mother performed "recitations" for the women's aid societies. Often for these events she took little Dutch with her to help and eventually to perform. These events began building Dutch's confidence and speaking abilities from a very early age.

Wherever possible, Nelle brought the arts into what she did. When she taught Sunday School as the president of the Missionary Society she often resorted to "humor, poetry, and passion."[]

During the summers, Nelle, herself an accomplished storyteller, took the boys to see performers at the old Chautauqua grounds. From these experiences, Dutch gained an appreciation for the art of storytelling and the power of well-chosen language.

Nelle Reagan, who Reagan would later call "a frustrated actress," took pride in her dialect performances and was always the center stage at local performances and church plays, often appearring with the younger Dutch. Her desire to be different had led to her dropping the more prosaic Nellie of her earlier days (as well as the birth record filed in 1943) so as to have a semblance of a stage name, and she and Jack told Dutch and Neil to call them by their first names. The adult Ronald later fulfilled Nelle's theatrical aspirations by having her appear with him on film and on radio.

Nelle was a devout and zealous churchwoman, a pious supporter of Disciples, a fundamentalist Christian, puritanical faith. Her life was bound up in church activity and she brought Dutch up in that religion. Her husband, a devout Catholic preferred to take Neil with him to the Catholic service while Nelle took Dutch with her to the Disciples. The husband and wife, coming from different religious backgrounds, differed on many issues, particularly drink. []

Dutch's thoughts on assisting the poor and distressed came from his mother, who taught him that 10 percent of what he earned was the Lord's share. After receiving permission from a minister, Reagan sent $10 a month from his first job to his brother in college. Then, "just to gild the lily," he gave ten cents each day to the first man on the street who asked him for coffee.

When Nelle fell ill, Dutch was devastated at the thought of anything happening to her. It seems as if he always had a special closeness with his mother, and this feeling carried on throughout his life.

For more information about Nelle Reagan, connect to the Reagan Family Tree.
Return to the family album.
























  

Jack Reagan's lessons about prejudice affected Dutch all of the rest of his life. Once when playing football for Eureka College, the team arrived at the away game hotel only to find it refused service to black members of the team. Dutch drove his teammates to his parents home in Dixon where they slept that night and from there they went to the game.

Return to Jack Reagan.
Return to the discussion of Jack Reagan's experience with prejudice.
Return to the family album.

































  

Jack Reagan's experience with prejudice stuck with Dutch the rest of his life. After his marriage to Jane Wyman, the couple applied for membership in Lakeside Counrty Club in Los Angeles. Jack Warner, head of Warner Brother Studio applied at same time. The Club accepted the Reagans and it turned down Jack Warner.

Perplexed by this strange decision to take the fledgling actor but not the studio boss, Reagan asked how this could happen and was told that the club only wanted Gentiles. "'You're anti-Semitic!' Reagan accused. 'You're damn right we're anti-Semitic,' was the reply."

Ronald Reagan resigned from the club.

Return to Jack Reagan.
Return to the discussion of Jack Reagan's experience with prejudice.
Return to the family album.

































  

Jack Reagan, an Irishman and staunch Democrat, wouldn't let his sons go see the film classic "Birth of a Nation" when comes to their hometown because of the glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Reagan says his parents always taught him to treat people equally, regardless of religion, race or color. Jack Reagan is quoted as saying, "It deals with the Ku Klux Klan against the colored folks and I'll be damned if anyone in this family will go see it."

Want to see film clips from "Birth of a Nation:" Segment 1 or Segment 2?
(Be warned that they may take 20 minutes or longer to download depending on your connection).

Return to Jack Reagan.
Select the discussion of Jack Reagan's experience with prejudice.
Return to the family album.

































  

In his new store, Jack became deadly serious about the art of selling shoes, and took a correspondence course that taught him all about the bones of the feet. "Jesus walked barefoot," Jack often said, "but then, he didn't have to deal with our Illinois winters, now did he?" One of his favorite selling pitches was, "I'm glad you chose that pair, they can walk to church and dance a jig on the way home."

Return to Jack Reagan.
Return to the family album.

































   
[]Another of the rare Reagan family photos, taken in Tampico, Ill., in 1913. Similar to the photo most often used, this photo shows a slightly less sedate Dutch. Left to right, of course, are John Edward ("Jack"), Neil, Ronald and Nelle Clyde.




Return to the family album