Nancy Reagan Joins Fans to Wish the Gipper a Happy 93rd

With the rolling Simi Hills serving as a backdrop worthy of a classic western, Nancy Reagan joined hundreds of well-wishers Friday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to celebrate her husband’s 93rd birthday and to unveil the cornerstone for a new $20-million exhibit hall.

More than 600 people, young and old, gathered at the north end of the hilltop complex near Simi Valley for a brief ceremony and a glimpse of the former first lady.

The former president, who revealed 10 years ago that he had Alzheimer’s disease, no longer makes public appearances.

“Today we celebrate the Reagan legacy, a great American story,” Frederick J. Ryan Jr., chairman of the library foundation board, told a small invited audience seated on a bluff near the expansion site. “Here on this wind-swept hill -- and it’s truly windy today -- here in Reagan country, his life and legacy will serve to inspire future generations.”

Along with Ryan and library director R. Duke Blackwood, Nancy Reagan was joined by former Gov. Pete Wilson, singer-producer Merv Griffin, Ventura County Supervisor Judy Mikels and Rudy de Leon, a Boeing senior vice president.

Joking that the former Hollywood actor would say he was “celebrating the 54th anniversary of his 39th birthday,” Ryan said the new Air Force One Pavilion at the museum would spotlight the Boeing 707 used by Reagan during his two terms in office.

He said the plane “was used as an effective tool in his fight to end communism, jetting from Moscow to Beijing; from Grenada to Berlin.”

Six presidents, from Richard Nixon to George H. W. Bush, used the retired aircraft, which sits without its wings near the construction site. Its history is legend -- Nixon returned to California on the plane after his resignation; Gerald Ford stumbled down the last few steps during a visit to Austria; and Reagan flew aboard the aircraft to Berlin, where he demanded that former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall. A chunk of the infamous wall is now displayed at the library.

Pulling a single ribbon, Nancy Reagan removed a cloth draped over the cornerstone -- a 400-pound, hollow 24-by-30-inch brown granite block with gold-leaf lettering that will become a time capsule placed inside the building.

The Air Force One exhibit is expected to be completed in spring 2005.

At one point, Reagan paused to shake hands with some of the workers constructing the 65,000-square-foot pavilion, which will include an auditorium and gallery space.

They presented her with a metal lunchbox for her husband that read “Happy 93rd Birthday Mr. President.”

As they posed for photos with the gift, someone in the crowd asked, “What does the first lady have in her lunchbox?” She replied, “Anything she wants.”

Minutes later, Reagan listened as a group of elementary school students from Thousand Oaks and Sylmar sang “Happy Birthday” to her husband.

“He doesn’t grasp it now that he’s just 6, but when he gets older this will mean a lot to him,” said Kelly Aaron, mother of Brett, one of the 66 first-graders from University Elementary in Thousand Oaks who sang for the president. “He’ll be honored.”

Docent Jean Edge, Brett’s great-grandmother, said this was the closest she had ever gotten to the former first lady in her three years volunteering at the library.

“She looked lovely. It was so good to see her.”

Other docents handed out slices of birthday cake to visitors lined up in the lobby.

By noon, the crowd had devoured three of the six cakes made for the occasion and decorated with photo-like images of the Reagans, including one shot of Air Force One.

The Reagans intended to celebrate Friday evening with a chocolate cake and quiet dinner with their daughter, Patti, at their Bel-Air home, according to a library spokeswoman.