Book Signing Draws Visitors From Afar

Taking his place in a long line outside the gift shop at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, John Kovach waited eagerly Wednesday for the moment he had traveled so far to enjoy.

The private school administrator traveled from Baltimore on Tuesday night just to see former first lady Nancy Reagan.

Tucked under Kovach’s arm were a few gifts: a framed drawing that his 6-year-old daughter rendered of a horse that former President Ronald Reagan frequently rode, and a medal that Kovach won while playing on the U. S. national field hockey team in 1979.

Kovach handed the items over to Reagan at a book signing hosted by the library and shook her hand. Afterward, he planned to catch a late flight back to Baltimore.

The former first lady, flanked by Secret Service agents, strolled into the Reagan library to sign copies of her autobiography, “My Turn.” About 400 people were on hand for the signing.

“This is something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time,” Kovach said. “I’ve always admired Mrs. Reagan and President Reagan very much. When I first visited [the Reagan library] about a year ago, there was something about the location of the library, the serenity, that drew me back.”

Kovach’s midweek jaunt from the East Coast was intended specifically to meet Nancy Reagan and give her gifts from his family. Kovach had originally dedicated his hockey medal, emblazoned with a bald eagle attached to a red, white and blue ribbon, to his father. When his father died, he got the medal back and planned to hand it over to the Reagans.

He said he hoped that the Reagans would enjoy the art and medal, and figured that the gifts would someday end up in a vault at the Reagan library.

“I will feel that I’ve been able to present them with something that’s meant a lot to me,” he said.

Others in the crowd of mostly senior citizens simply wanted a chance to meet a central figure from the Reagan era.

“He was the best we’ve had in this half of the century,” said another visitor, Maurine Ross. “I just want to tell her I admire her courage in taking care of [Reagan] in his last few years. I’m proud of her.”