Norvell Emerson: “as we mourn the passing of President Ronald Reagan, I remember one experience in 1985 that to me defines President…”

“as we mourn the passing of President Ronald Reagan, I remember one experience in 1985 that to me defines President Reagan best. It was my daughter Katharine's first visit to the White House with the Emerson family. As we approached the Oval Office, outside of which we were to wait for the President, the door swung open. Katharine had been obediently holding my hand, but at that moment she broke away from me and she ran towards President Reagan. The Secret Servicemen standing between us and the President moved to stop her. ``No, no,'' President Reagan calmly said to them. Katharine flew past the Secret Servicemen and jumped into the President's arms, and he lifted her up high. The genuine joy on both of their faces struck me then. Today the memory reminds me that as strong a man as he was, President Reagan could easily match the enthusiastic happiness of a 2-year-old. Even before she met him, Ronald Reagan was my daughter's hero. It was not the President's rhetoric that won her. It was not his stalwart countenance under the distress of terror in the Middle East, his unwavering courage in the face of communism, or his passionate leadership in the shadow of a nuclear threat. Not even the lure of the jelly bean jar on his desk made Reagan a great man to Katharine. Plainly put, the quality that won her was the same one that won us all: his sincerity. He was quintessentially American. He was a Midwesterner. He was a success story. He was a visionary.”