Relationships
His Beloved Mother - Nelle
Born in Tampico, Illinois in 1911 and raised in numerous towns throughout northern and central Illinois, Reagan was always on the move looking for gainful employ with his father Jack, mother Nelle and brother John "Neil," or "Moon" as the family called him. The family rented homes and apartments everywhere they went not to own their first home until the young movie star bought one for his parents in the late 1930s. Young Ronald spent the largest chunk of his formative years in Dixon, attending some grade school and all of high school there. Reagan's father Jack was an alcoholic, so the real parent figure in Reagan's life was the intelligent, determined and religious Nelle Reagan. It is no surprise, then, that Ronald would always be drawn to powerful, self-determined and independent women.
The Cleaver Family
It was in Dixon that Reagan attended church with his mother at the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) lead by the Reverend Benjamin Cleaver. Because of Jack Reagan's frequent abscenses, the young Reagan boys took on more mature roles at an earlier age than they would otherwise, there is a sense that Reagan looked to other men as mentors and father-figures, specifically the Reverend Cleaver.
Cleaver's youngest daughter, Margaret (or "Mugs") was Reagan's love and she was heading to Eureka in the fall of 1928 for her freshmen year. As the Cleavers began Margaret's move to Eureka, Reagan was more than happy to assist as he had little or no prospects for a job and certainly never realistically dreamed of attending College let alone seeing his true-love, Margaret, off to College amidst all those educated college men.
Though a driving force for Reagan to come to Eureka was love and he was devoted to that particular love all fours years, he most certainly must have been deeply influenced and encouraged to dream of a college education by the Reverend Cleaver with whom he exchanged personal and political correspondence until the elder Cleaver's death in 1975. In fact, after moving Margaret into her dormitory, the Cleavers encouraged Ronald to speak with Admissions about attending EC himself. He got in, received a needy student scholarship - which basically allowed Reagan to defer some of his bills until after graduation - and found a job cleaning at the TKE Fraternity house. It certainly must have helped to have the Cleaver family vouching for him.
Doing the Right Thing
A story which transcends football and reaches to the roots of Eureka College occurred during the fall of Reagan's junior year. One of Reagan's closest friends was Franklin "Burgie" Burghardt - who later went on to chair several university chemistry departments. In the fall of 1930, Burghardt was one of four African-Americans on the Red Devil football team when the team was traveling through Dixon on their way to play Elmhurst College. The tavern owner in Dixon told the team they could not eat or stay there since there were blacks on the team. Reagan suggested to Coach McKinzie that Reagan and his four team members go to Reagan's parent's home in Dixon where they would be fed and spend the night, meeting up with the rest of the team the next day. That is exactly what happened. Certainly, facing racism was an almost common occurrence for the College's integrated teams reflected in it's almost "non-event" status in EC history, yet, specifically for Reagan and those team members, it was a defining moment. Years later, as President of the United States, Reagan was to tell this story to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall allowing Marshall to see the man versus the politician.
Another Famous Eureka College Alumna - John Neil Reagan
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