Stan Paregien, Editor
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan was born Ronald Wilson Reagan in Tampico, Ill. on Feb. 6, 1911. By 1920 the Reagans settled in Dixon, Illinois, the place Reagan considers his hometown. Beginning in 1926, Reagan was employed as a lifeguard at Lowell Park in Dixon. He was credited with saving 77 lives during the 7 summers he worked there.
Ronald Reagan graduated from Dixon High School in 1928. He had served as student body president and participated in football, basketball, track, and school plays. Then from 1928-32 he attended Eureka (Illinois) College, a small liberal arts institution, and majored in economics and sociology. During his sophomore year, Reagan became interested in drama. Reagan also served as student body president. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's populist rhetoric attracted Reagan to him and later influenced Reagan's speaking style.
In 1932 Ronald Reagan received a temporary sports broadcasting job with WOC, a small radio station in Davenport, Iowa. After WOC consolidated with WHO in Des Moines, "Dutch" recreated Chicago Cubs baseball games from the studio. WHO, an NBC affiliate, gave Reagan national media exposure.
In 1937 Reagan enlisted in the Army Reserve as a Private but was soon promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Cavalry. An agent for Warner Brothers "discovered" Reagan in Los Angeles and offered him a seven year contract.
The peak of his movie career came very early. Ronald Reagan played George Gipp in his most acclaimed film, "Knute Rockne -- All American" in l940. That same year (Jan. 24th), he and Jane Wyman married and a year later their daughter Maureen was born.
With the start of World War II, the Army Air Force called Reagan to active duty in 1942 and assigned Lieutenant Reagan to the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California, where he made over 400 training films. On July 22 1943, the Army promoted Reagan to the rank of Captain. He was discharged on Dec. 9, 1945.
During the years 1945 - 1965, Ronald Reagan made fifty-three motion pictures and one television movie. On March 18, 1945 his son Michael was born. But in 1949 Reagan and Jane Wyman divorced.
Ronald Reagan's Western credits included the following films: The Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938), Santa Fe Trail (1940), An Angel from Texas (1940), The Bad Man (1941), Stallion Road (1947), The Last Outpost (1951), Law and Order (1953), Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) and Tennessee's Partner (1955). He also served as host of the Western TV series, "Death Valley Days," during one season (1965-66).
In 1952 Reagan accepted a job as spokesman for the General Electric Company which allowed him to tour the country giving speeches. That same year, on March 4th, he and Nancy Davis wed. And on Oct 21 1952 daughter Patricia was born. Son Ronald Prescott Reagan followed on May 20, 1958.
In 1962 Ronald Reagan officially changed his party registration to Republican. And in 1964 Reagan's television address for Goldwater, "A Time for Choosing," launched his political career. In 1965 Reagan's autobiography, Where's the Rest of Me? was published.
In 1966 Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent California governor Edmund G. ("Pat") Brown in a landslide. In 1970 Reagan was re-elected governor for a second four-year term.
On Nov 20, 1975 Reagan announced candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. He lost the party's nomination, but his strong showing laid the groundwork for the election in 1980.
On Nov 13, 1979 Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for President. After winning the party's nomination, he chose George Bush as his running mate. And on Nov 4 1980 Reagan was elected the 40th President of the United States in a landslide victory over the incumbent, Jimmy Carter.
The eight years of the Reagan presidency was one of the most dynamic periods, in recent U.S. history, resulting in a major refocusing of the nation's social, business, and international agenda. Few presidents have enjoyed the affection of so many of the American people. Support for Ronald Reagan grew when he was seriously wounded by an assassin's bullet in 1981, and during major surgical procedures in 1985 and 1987. Reagan was known as the "Great Communicator," and often went on television to ask the viewers for their support for a particular piece of legislation.
When he ran for a second term in 1984 against former Vice-President Walter Mondale, Reagan stood by his record and asked the voters if they were better off now than they were four years ago. At 73 years of age, Reagan became the oldest man ever elected president, receiving 525 electoral votes, the most of any presidential candidate. As his second term ended, polls showed that more than half of the American people gave him a favorable rating.
In about 1994 Ronald Reagan himself publicly announced that he was doing battle with Alzheimer's disease. This terrible disease has since robbed "The Great Communicator" of even his ability to recognize most members of his family.
Ronald Wilson Reagan died at his home on Saturday, June 5, 2004 from pneumonia complicated by the Alzheimer's disease that had progressively clouded his mind. He was 93 years of age.
CLICK HERE to see the official Ronald Reagan Home Page.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Ronald Reagan.
James M. Reasoner
James M. Reasoner is the author of Texas Wind (Woodhill, 1980).
Ellen Recknor
Using the pen name "Phoebe Fitzjames," Ellen Recknor is the author of several historical romances for Zebra, including Wild Captive Fire, Renegade's Angel, Oklahoma Angel, and Silver Angel. Her first non-romance western was Me and the Boys (Berkley/Jove, 1995).
Robert H. Redding
Robert H. Redding's book, Lock's Revenge, was published by Thomas Couregy & Co. in 1988.
Robert Redford
Robert Redford was born Charles Robert Redford Jr. on Aug. 18, 1937 in Santa Monica, CA. In high school he was a borderline juvenile deliquent. He lost his college baseball scholarship at the University of Colorado because of drunkenness. After studying at the Pratt Institute of Art and living the painter's life in Europe, he studied acting in New York at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
He studied art at the Pratt Institute of Art, then lived as a vagabond painter in Europe. That was, however, before he turned to acting. He returned to America and studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Not surprisingly, it took him less than ten years to make the transition from Broadway fledgling to Hollywood superstar in wild roles, like that in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", (1969), costarring Paul Newman. Shortly thereafter, a reunion with Newman led to 1973 's, "The Sting".
Robert Redford also starred in such films as "The Candidate", (1972), "The Way We Were'", (1973), "Three Days Of The Condor", (1975), and "All The President's Men", (1976). He won his only Oscar, not for being an actor, but a director for 1980 's , "Ordinary People".
He also starred in "The Horse Whisperer" (1999).
Paul Newman, Katherine Ross and Robert Redford
in one of the most popular Westerns of the 20th century.CLICK HERE to see more photos, as well as a more complete biography and filmography.
Luke Reed
Luke Reed was born in Ringling, Okla., in 1954. His father was a rodeo man (saddle bronc rider) and ranch foreman. So Luke tried his hand at cowboying, too. When he tore up his knee bulldogging and was laid up for many weeks, he wrote his first song: "The Last Cowboy". More were to come, while he earned a degree in agriculture from Oklahoma State University and then worked full-time as a county agent and even teaching high school. He also rode pens at the Goodnight Cattle Company in Frederick, Oklahoma, for a time.
In 1989 Luke Reed released his first album, "What's A Cowboy To Do?". And in 1990 Luke Reed signed on as a songwriter for Golden Hook Music, owned by Ricky Scaggs. His cowboy songs have been recorded by such folks as Don Edwards, Jeff Chance, Red Steagall, Gene Watson and Randy Travis.
I've had the pleasure of meeting Luke a couple of times. I last saw him when I performed at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame's Cowboy Poetry Gathering in 2000. I sat in on the song writing session that he and a couple of other gents were conducting. He is not only a talented writer and musician, he's a good ol' boy, too.
As of April, 2004, Luke Reed was living in Ribera, New Mexico. He has returned to teaching agriculture, this time over at the Santa Fe Indian School. And he spends his spare time playing in a trio specializing in Western swing music.
Ernest Lisle Reedstrom
A native of Illinois, E.L. Reedstrom at age 17 set out to find the legendary "Lost Dutchman's" gold in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. A year later and a bit wiser, he and a friend had formed a pack-train service in which they led other prospectors into the area. He kicked around the desert until he was drafted during the Korean War.
Following a tour of Korea, he entered the Arizona School of Art and then Arizona University. Then he started his own advertising agency and, in his spare time, developed an authoritative knowledge of historical weapons and period clothing.
Ernest Lisle Reedstrom's articles have appeared in Frontier Times, Gun Digest, Western Horseman, Old West, and Guns & Ammo. He is the author of Historic Dress of the Old West (Blanford Press, 1987) and Bugles, Banners and Warbonnets (Caxton Printers, Ltd.; reprinted by Crown Publishing), a book which won a Spur for "Best Non-Fiction" at the 1978 WWA Convention.
He is also an artist and illustrator. He did a series of illustrations for The Roundup under the heading, "Out Where the Wild Jest Begins". Ernest Lisle Reedstrom lives in Indiana.
John Reese
(Deceased)
John Reese was born on Dec. 18, 1910 in Sweetwater, Neb. He graduated from Dunbar High School. He moved to California and in 1937 became very active in the labor movement. In fact, he organized the first successful cannery strike in the Imperial Valley. And from 1939 to 1944 he was a reporter and labor editor for the old Los Angeles Examiner. A long-time member of WWA, John Reese was the author of 40 novels and hundreds of short stories. He wrote under his own name and such pseudonyms as John Jo Carpenter, Camford Cheavly, Eddie Abbott and Cody Kennedy, Jr. He was nominated for the Saddleman Award in 1981 for his contributions to Western writing.
His novels included Jesus on Horseback (1971), Legacy of a Land Hog (1980), Dead Eye (1980), A Pair of Deuces (1978), Sequoia Shootout (1977), Sharpshooter (1974) and Maximum Range. He helped found "Pesos for Braces," an organization that purchased orthopedic braces and artificial limbs for nearly 5,000 Mexican children and adults; "Mano-A-Mano," an organization which provided school supplies to rural Mexico; and "The Friends of the Library" in Santa Maria, CA.
John Reese died on Aug. 15, 1981, at Santa Maria, Calif., following a long bout with cancer. (My thanks to Mr. Reese's granddaughter, Kimberly Becker, for some of the information above).
Connie Reeves
(Deceased)Constance Douglas Reeves, horsewoman and writer, was born in 1901 at Eagle Pass, Texas. Her parents were Judge W.C. and Ada Wallace Douglas.
She got her own horse when she was just five years old. That was the beginning of an association between her and horses that lasted another 96 years.
The family moved to San Antonio when she was sixteen. And there she mastered both English and western riding styles. She graduated from Texas Women's University (Denton, TX) in 1922. Then returned to San Antonio to teach speech and English, first at Main Avenue High ( her alma mater), and then at Thomas Jefferson High.
However, working with horses was an idea that just wouldn't go away. So he established Oak Hill Riding Stables and began teach young people the ways of horsemanship.
Then in 1936 she was offered a job as the riding instructor at Waldemar Camp for Girls at Hunt, Texas (close to Kerrville). And she kept that job for an amazing 66 years.
In 1942 Connie Douglass married Jack Reeves, a former professional rodeo performer. He was the head wrangler at Waldemar Ranch from 1943 until his death in 1980.
When the home folks salute you, that is an honor indeed. And in 1966 Connie Reeves was named "Woman of the Year" by her hometown of Junction, Texas. She was received, during that same year, an "All-Time Achievement Award" from Texas Woman's University.
In 1995, when she was only 94, Connie Reeves wrote her biography and titled it, "I Married a Cowboy".
Connie Reeves' crowning achievement came in 1997. It was in that year that the National Cowgirl Museum inducted her into their Hall of Fame.
Fittingly, I suppose, Connie Reeves came close to dying "in the saddle". At the age of 101, she was still riding her horse. But one day it bucked her off and she died a few days later from complications of the fall.
Quite a lady.
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
--- Bible: Proverbs 3:5-6
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
