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| Above, former Gov. Ronald Reagan arrives at the luncheon. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
While viewing a memorial video of Verna Mattox this morning, who was a friend and political ally back in the 1970s and 1980s, and during the Reagan campaigns of 1976, 1980 and 1984, I was reminded of an event we attended in 1979 at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
There, in one of the lecture halls of the university's law department, I attended a luncheon featuring former Governor Ronald Reagan as the guest speaker. A fellow member of our Hawthorne, California area Republican Central Committee, Bill Fernandez, came along. Verna Mattox was there when we arrived.
As one can imagine, it was a full house and the speech was in preparation for Reagan's 1980 run for the presidency.
I did some digging in my photo albums and found my photos of the luncheon. They were a bit faded (well, they are 40-year-old prints) from a Minolta 35mm rangefinder camera I had at the time.
Following the luncheon, Bill Fernandez "cornered" Senator Richard Schweiker in the lobby and had a very animated chat with the him. Schweiker was Reagan's choice as vice presidential running mate in 1976.
After scanning a few of them, I did some tinkering with them to get better color and clarity.
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| Above and below, Gov. Reagan addresses the luncheon. Photos by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, Senator Richard Schweiker (left) listens to Bill Fernandez as Verna Mattox looks on. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
2 comments:
I believe Schweiker also served as Ronnie's HHS Secretary, showing that the Gipper didn't forget his allies. Armand, at how many events do you figure you saw Ronald Reagan live? I never did... just on TV.
You are correct about Schweiker being HHS Secretary.
I've seen Reagan too many times to give an accurate count. The first was at the South Bay Shopping Center in Redondo Beach when he was running for re-election as governor in 1970. I got his autograph at that one.
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