Reagan Birthplace Never Won Fame : Town Waiting for Favorite Son to Visit

When Ronald Reagan launched his presidential campaign in 1976, he started it with a ceremony in his tiny hometown and promised to return after he won the office.

It’s 13 years later, and Tampico is still waiting.

And residents wonder why the title “birthplace of a President” never translated into tourism and fame for this dusty farming community.

“The tourists never came because we didn’t have Billy Carter sitting here drinking beer,” said Stan Headings, 49, owner of The Dutch Diner.

Headings opened the diner shortly after Reagan, whose nickname is Dutch, took office in 1981. He figured to cash in on Tampico’s connection with the President but found he had to get by on the local trade.

He was luckier than other entrepreneurs, whose ventures such as gift shops and antique stores failed.

Headings’ restaurant is two doors from the old First National Bank building where Nellie Reagan gave birth to Ronald Wilson Reagan in an upstairs apartment on Feb. 6, 1911.

The bank closed in 1937 and its facade is virtually unchanged except for a sign proclaiming it the “Birthplace of President Ronald Reagan.”

Inside, visitors can find Paul and Helen Nicely surrounded with mementos and guarding Tampico’s link with Reagan.

“President Reagan set up his national campaign headquarters here in 1976 and he spent the day,” said Nicely, a 70-year-old retired teacher who earned a graduate degree for his years of research on Reagan.

“Before he left he said he’d be back. But he’s never been back.”

Mayor Roy Sigel describes Tampico as a proud town, saddened that its favorite son never comes home.

The perceived snub is magnified because Reagan has found time during his eight years as President to drop in at his nearby alma mater, Eureka College; to his boyhood home of Dixon just 35 miles away; and most recently to Davenport, Iowa, about 60 miles from Tampico.

Tampico, a town of about 950 people, still throws a birthday party for Reagan every February. Their invitations to the hometown boy who made good have gone unanswered.