Appeared this morning on the CBS “Early Show” to talk about my new book, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life, as Tim Graham has already been kind enough to note. After my segment, Harry Smith, who turns out to be an intelligent and discriminating man (I know this for certain because he not only read my book but told me that he loved it) had me linger on the set for a few moments so he could tell me a Reagan story of his own.
For several years, Harry said, Patti Davis lived just down the hall from his own apartment. When Patti’s father announced that he had Alzheimer’s disease, Harry’s two little boys used construction paper and crayons to make the former president get well cards. At home asleep not long after–since he has to get up at 4.30 each morning to shoot the “Early Show,” Harry explained, he often takes afternoon naps–Harry heard someone at the door. He pulled on a pair of trousers, strode out of his bedroom barechested–and found that Nancy Reagan had stopped by with a teddy bear for each of his boys.
“I couldn’t have been more embarrassed,” Smith said, “but she couldn’t have been more gracious.”