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NAMES IN THE NEWS : Reagan ‘Archivist’ Might Say No

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From Times Staff and Wire Service Reports

Kim Marler is honored that Ronald Reagan wants her 19 scrapbooks for his presidential library, but she’s not sure whether to donate or lend them.

The high school senior showed Reagan and his wife, Nancy, the scrapbooks of his presidency when he came to Baton Rouge last week to give a commencement speech at Louisiana State University.

“I was nervous at first, and then I kind of got relaxed,” she said. “They were normal people just like me.”

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She said Reagan told her the scrapbooks would be a valuable contribution to his library, now under construction in California.

“I’d like to have him have them in his library,” said Marler. “But I worked on this for nine years, so I don’t want to just give them up.”

Marler said Reagan, his interest piqued by the stories and photographs in the scrapbooks, talked at length about the attempt on his life in 1981.

“He talked about how the bullet entered him. When he got to the hospital, he could hardly walk. His suit was brand new, and they had to cut if off him,” she said.

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