Activist Mom’s Trek Ends at Reagan Library : Simi Valley: Jeanette Goodman walks 1,100 miles to call attention to the homeless and the mentally ill.

The last mile was certainly not the toughest for Jeanette Goodman, who hiked from El Paso, Tex., to Simi Valley on her “Mother’s March” to focus attention on the plight of the homeless and the mentally ill.

On Saturday, the 50-year-old former property manager pushed a three-wheeled cart containing her food and clothing up a winding hillside road to the terminus of her 2 1/2-month journey--the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Despite her heavy load and the blazing midday sun, Goodman easily outpaced a dozen Southern California advocates for the mentally ill who joined her on the last leg of the trip.

Puffing up the road many yards behind her, Bill Davis of Tehachapi, a board member of the California Alliance for the Mentally Ill, shook his head in admiration. “I guess after 1,100 miles, you’re either dead or in marvelous shape,” he said.

After being soaked by rainstorms and rattled by an earthquake during her trek across the rugged Southwest, Goodman was not fazed by Ventura County’s 90-degree heat wave. “The Mojave Desert was the hottest,” she said. “I think it got up to 110 degrees.”

Goodman’s walk was inspired by a chilling vision involving Billy, her 32-year-old mentally ill son. The Houston woman feared that someday, when she could no longer care for him, her son might become a homeless person, forced to eat out of garbage cans.

As she worried about her son’s future, Goodman saw a television report on the opening of the Reagan library. The highlight was the joint appearance by President Bush, Reagan and former Presidents Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Richard M. Nixon.

The historic meeting inspired the idea of a trek to the library and a proposal for a Former Presidents’ Council to Aid the Mentally Ill and Homeless. Along the way, she camped in public places, so that she could learn how it feels to be homeless.

Her journey ended at about noon Saturday. Beside the library’s entry sign, dressed in running shoes, torn slacks, a striped shirt and pink baseball cap, Goodman threw up her hands, waved a Texas flag and shouted, “I made it!”

In the patio she got a hug from the library’s director, Ralph C. Bledsoe. Bledsoe handed Goodman a congratulatory letter from Reagan, saying the former President was moved by her selfless mission.

Brushing back tears, Goodman recalled that her son, diagnosed as a schizophrenic, once complained to her that no one is concerned about the mentally ill.

“This is my way of saying I care,” she said.

She said many people are living on the streets simply because they cannot get help from government agencies. “I’m asking for your help in bringing those people home,” Goodman told onlookers at the library. “What I’m asking you to do is rescue the homeless and the mentally ill.”

Goodman said her hike was neither a fund-raiser nor a protest aimed at any public figure, including Reagan. She refused donations, instead urging people to give to the Salvation Army or a mental health association.

But some of the well-wishers who joined Goodman for the last leg of her trek did not hesitate to say that public programs for the mentally ill are underfunded and badly managed.

Kathleen Payne of Simi Valley said Goodman’s destination was an ironic choice. “Reagan was the first one to shut down the huge institutions for the mentally ill, which are now laying vacant,” Payne said.

Laverne Kemp of Tehachapi, president of the Kern County Alliance for the Mentally Ill, said her son Thomas, suffering from schizophrenia, died on the street in 1990 at age 37 because he did not qualify for forced hospitalization.

“He didn’t fit the criteria for gravely disabled,” she said. “A person almost has to be holding a hatchet to someone’s head or to their own head before they will be put in a hospital.”

During her interstate hike, Goodman was often mistaken for a homeless bag lady. Just a few days before she arrived at the Reagan library, she said, a sheriff’s deputy escorted her out of affluent La Canada Flintridge after residents complained about her.

But in many communities, Goodman said, she was welcomed by people who allowed her to sleep in their back yard or in a spare room.

She was well-equipped for the journey. Her cart was loaded with an inflatable mattress, foam pad, sheets and a sleeping bag. In a dry bag she carried her medicine, an aluminum pan and a portable stove. Her ice chest did double duty as a washer.

She carried other possessions in a backpack. Attached to it was a banner: “A Mother’s March for the Mentally Ill and Homeless--Texas to Cal.”

The Houston woman quit her job and sold most of her possessions before leaving home on May 1. She carried little cash but obtained money from automated teller machines when necessary.

For protection, the 5-foot-2, 105-pound woman slept with a pistol in her pocket and chased away dogs with a slingshot. Her only scrape occurred in Arizona, where she was attacked by a pack of dogs near an Indian reservation.

“I never thought about quitting,” Goodman said. “It was just something I had to do.”

At the end of her journey, Goodman was asked how she planned to get home. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I haven’t even worried about it. I guess I could hitchhike if I had to.”

Times staff writer Franki V. Ransom contributed to this story.