A Bittersweet Moment Brings Tears
By Adam Nagourney Aug. 13, 1996
Dressed in white, her voice hushed and shaking, her eyes glistening with tears, Nancy Reagan silenced the Republican National Convention tonight with a tribute to her husband, too ill to attend, and a quiet recitation of the words he delivered at the party's convention four years ago.
Mrs. Reagan, a slim and tiny figure, was greeted by a torrent of applause as she walked out onto the stage of the convention hall after a gauzy videotaped tribute to Ronald Reagan.
The video had included scenes from Mr. Reagan's eight years in the White House, and tributes from friends of his like former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, the evangelist Billy Graham and Jack Kemp, now set to become the party's Vice-Presidential nominee.
But the words of those men were quickly forgotten as Mrs. Reagan began talking. The image of Mrs. Reagan alone was unfamiliar, but her reference to her husband by the nickname that only she uses in public Ronnie brought nods of recognition.
And as she spoke publicly about her husband's waning life he is 85 years old, and suffering from Alzheimer's disease the televisioncameras lingered on delegates, men and women alike, wiping tears from their eyes. Mrs. Reagan herself fought back tears but, except for one faltering moment, stopped short of weeping as she told the hushed hall thatevery day brings another reminder of this very long goodbye.
Mrs. Reagan remembered that at the party convention of 1992, in Houston, Mr. Reagan hinted to his audience that he was perhaps seeing signs of deterioriating health.
Just four years ago, she said, Ronnie stood before you and spoke what he said might be his last speech. At that, she stopped to collect her thoughts.
I am not the speechmaker in the family, so let me close with Ronnie's words and not mine, she continued. In that last speech four years ago, he said: 'Whatever else history may say about me, when I am gone I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence, rather than your doubts. And may all of you, as Americans, never forget your heroic origins.'
Mrs. Reagan did not mention Bob Dole, Bill Clinton or the campaign at hand – a lack of partisanship that made her speech all the more moving.
In contrast, the videotape, part documentary and part campaign commercial, was more in keeping with the rest of the evening.
The video showed the high points of Mr. Reagan's Presidency, including his memorable speech at the Berlin Wall, where he appealed to the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. It showed him throwing a football, told of his well-known taste for jelly beans and had Mr. Graham describing him as the most uplifting person I've ever been around.
As an effort to gain favorable political exposure, the showing of the videotape was largely successful. ABC and NBC televised it in its entirety, although CBS instead broadcast an interview with Representative Susan Molinari of Staten Island (who will deliver the keynote speech here on Tuesday night) before breaking for a commercial and then returning for the last minute of the Reagan video.
Then Mrs. Reagan walked shyly onto the stage, her soft white dress set off only by a single string of white pears. She seemed overwhelmed by her reception, and as the applause went on and on, she mouthed thank you again and again, looking over an audience that included George Bush and Gerald R. Ford other than her husband the only two former Republican Presidents still living and Elizabeth Dole, who with her own husband visited the Reagans at Mr. Reagan's office in Century City, Calif., in June.
Mrs. Reagan began by fondly remembering her eight years in the White House. She went on to recall the last time she had appeared before an audience of delegates, when her husband himself was strong enough to speak and, indeed, to give one of the more memorable speeches of the 1992 convention.
Ronnie's spirit, his optimism, his never-failing belief in the strength and goodness of America, is still very strong, Mrs. Reagan said. ''If he were able to be here tonight,he would once again remind us of the power of each individual, urging us once again to fly as high as our wings can take us.
I can tell you with certainty, she said, ''that he still sees the shining city on the hill.''
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 13, 1996, Section A, Page 14 of the National edition with the headline: A Bittersweet Moment Brings Tears.
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/13/us/a-bittersweet-moment-brings-tears.html