Thousands Visit Statue : Mrs. Reagan Reopens Lady Liberty to Public

In a simple ceremony underscoring the significance of freedom for future generations, the Statue of Liberty was officially reopened to the public Saturday.

Soon after First Lady Nancy Reagan cut the wide red, white and blue ribbon, the first visitors bolted off a tour boat, sweeping past surprised security guards in a great rush to the statue. Some had waited more than 16 hours, sleeping on the dock in lower Manhattan, to be on board the vessel.

As they raced toward the refurbished statue some grew wide-eyed; others stopped momentarily for quick snapshots. Inside, many paused to admire the statue’s original torch, on exhibit in the lobby, before scrambling up the stairs to the crown.

“Both my grandparents went through Ellis Island,” said Jack Bayt, a 24-year-old student from Fullerton, Calif., who was among the first off the boat. “It’s the chance of a lifetime to be here for the reopening of the statue, and I wasn’t going to miss it.”

‘Really Spruced Up’

“They really spruced up the old girl,” added Jack Drake, a 61-year-old fireman, who said he planned to take his eight children to see the monument.

The dramatic race was the fitting conclusion to official observances once again making the Statue of Liberty, closed for restoration since May 29, 1984, a public treasure.

“We put her back in mint condition,” said Lee A. Iacocca, chairman of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Inc., which raised the money for the monument’s repair. . . . “Take good care of her. She’s quite a lady.”

“You bet we’ll take good care of her,” Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel replied during the formal opening. “That is a sacred obligation.”

Police said 4,000 people were lined up Saturday morning to board the ferry to Liberty Island. To pass the time, they sang “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and other patriotic songs. In the end, so many people crowded Liberty Island and refused to leave that officials halted ferries to the island at 5 p.m., three hours early.

Contrasted with the previous nights’ fireworks and elaborate entertainment, Saturday’s ribbon-cutting, intended as a tribute to America’s young people, was a deliberately intimate ceremony. Just 600 people gathered on Liberty Island to hear Mrs. Reagan praise the public spirit of America’s children.

With Mrs. Reagan were 34 French schoolchildren who had written winning essays about the statue and the 51 winners of the Christa McAuliffe Liberty Essay Contest, named for the teacher-crew member killed in the January explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. In a poignant moment, Mrs. Reagan acknowledged the presence in the audience of the late teacher’s husband, Steven McAuliffe, and their two children.

“I know I speak for all Americans, especially the children, when I say that she inspired us with her hopes and ambitions for a better tomorrow, through education,” she said.

“Through a special fund-raising campaign in our schools to help restore Lady Liberty,” Mrs. Reagan said, “students raised $5 million from selling cookies and candy to collecting tin cans and pop bottles.

“And even more importantly, they went beyond the fund-raising, and focused greater attention on the meaning of this special symbol. They painted murals, performed plays and wrote books on her history--so much that their excitement stimulated an essay contest giving them a chance to express what liberty means in their lives.”

Harlem, Paris Choirs

Flanking the First Lady on a rose-bedecked stage in front of the statue, the combined Boys Choirs of Harlem and Paris joined in an emotional tribute to sing the Emma Lazarus poem engraved on the statue including the famous lines: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” In a special surprise, the choirs serenaded Mrs. Reagan with “Happy Birthday” in honor of her 65th birthday today.

Jason Verhelst, a 10-year-old fourth-grader from Madison, Wis., read from his prize-winning selection. “Just as the rainbow comes when there is light from the sun after a rainstorm, the Statue of Liberty holds a light in her hand to show people the way to a free country,” he read. “It is important to have a symbol to remind us that our country is free and be grateful it is that way.”

In the French competition, Laurence Lemoine, 17, of San Germain-en-Laye, outside Paris, was selected for her eloquent poem, “Liberty.” In French, Lemoine recited the verse: “ . . . Liberty, are you not tied to this continent just as a child can be to its mother? To love you has been the most noble virtue in all times, and by the union of our forces you will be defended.”

The ceremonies concluded with Mrs. Reagan struggling with a pair of scissors to cut a three-foot-wide ribbon signifying the statue’s reopening. While the audience waited and Secret Service agents and White House aides looked on nervously, the First Lady fruitlessly cut and cut. Finally, with the huge ribbon rearranged, she was successful.

On cue, six crates of gray and white homing pigeons dubbed the “birds of peace” were released from behind the stage. Most of the birds headed directly home, but a few flew by for a closer look at Lady Liberty before rejoining the flock.

Trailed by some of the schoolchildren, Mrs. Reagan entered the statue to the strains of “America the Beautiful,” played by a marching band, the Garfield Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. Waiting for the First Lady when she arrived in the crown via the statue’s emergency elevator were essay winners Kristeen Reft of Kodiak Island, Alaska, and Laurence Honore, of Herderville in France.

Waved to Boats

“She said hello, she waved out the window at the police boats,” the 17-year-old Honore said.

But overshadowing the formal ceremonies was the great surge of visitors who arrived not long after Mrs. Reagan’s departure. They came in all ages, all sizes, all shapes, all modes of dress. Many wore T-shirts; many wore the by-now familiar green foam-rubber Liberty crowns; some wore jackets and ties; all wore sensible shoes. Parents, grandparents, small children all eagerly converged on Lady Liberty.

First off the boat was an English tourist, Paul Weisman, 24, of Derbyshire, who said he got in line at 7:15 p.m. Friday. “She is magnificent,” Weisman said. “She stands so proud, in a marvelous setting.”

“It’s so exciting,” said free-lance artist Michael Shall, 37, of Manhattan, who followed close behind Weisman. “I’ve been waiting for this for three years.”

“Oh, what a very sweet giant!” 11-year-old Audrey Huir of Alsace, France, exclaimed in French, staring up at the great pale-green statue.

“I have chills. This is simply breathtaking,” third-grade teacher Candy Vampola of Omaha said.

Visitors Lingering

By 4 p.m. Saturday, just four hours after the first boat had arrived, Chief Ranger Bill Dehart reported that 3,765 people had visited the statue. By that time visitors were waiting four hours to board the elevators to carry them to the observation deck, and at 5 p.m. the National Park Service closed the monument to more visitors. On Liberty Island, officials said visitors were lingering far longer than expected on this first day of the statue’s reopening.

“It’s so chaotic inside the statue right now,” Dehart said. “It’s just been a hard day.”

But also a rewarding one. Any tensions between Iacocca and Hodel, the man who fired Iacocca from his job as chairman of the government’s advisory commission on the Statue of Liberty’s restoration, were suspended for the occasion, as the two bantered like old friends.

Asked how things were going, Hodel flashed a “thumbs up” sign. “It’s terrific!” he said.

Smoking a cigar and relaxing in the shade in a wrought-iron lawn chair moments before the opening ceremonies began, Iacocca joked, “This is the first rest we’ve had in four days. The press has been driving us crazy.” Then he laughed. “Sorry, guys, when you’re this tired you’ve got to blame somebody. It can’t just be that we’re getting old.”

He was pleased that the festivities, scheduled to close today with a gala farewell and sports salute in New Jersey, had come off so well so far, Iacocca said. Of Friday’s tall ships parade and spellbinding fireworks display, he added: “Somebody said the last time anybody had seen people that happy was VE Day, when we won World War II.”