Fans Wish Reagan a Happy Birthday

SIMI VALLEY —  Doris Cotton’s loyalty to Ronald Reagan runs so deep that she timed a visit to Los Angeles from her Indiana home so she could celebrate the former president’s 90th birthday at his presidential library.

The Indianapolis native said she fell in love with the 40th president more than 20 years ago as Reagan held her hand and talked about issues that mattered to her.

“Everything he said made sense to me and I’ve been very loyal ever since,” Cotton said about her encounter with the presidential hopeful in Indiana at a political rally in the late 1970s.

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” the 75-year-old Cotton said Tuesday, sitting in the courtyard of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library with her son, Greg, of Duarte. “I’m thrilled about it, but at the same time I’m very sad because he’s not here.”

Such were the sentiments of hundreds of Reagan fans who flocked to the library. Only two other presidents--John Adams and Herbert Hoover--lived to 90.

Reagan, who is recovering from hip surgery after a Jan. 12 fall, has not made any public appearances since a videotaped address in 1996, two years after he announced that he had Alzheimer’s disease.

At the library festivities, the guests included 90 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders from Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Simi Valley, who scrawled “Happy Birthday” and “Get Well” messages on a 90-foot card to be displayed until Sunday.

The students also sang “Happy Birthday” to a small crowd of tourists and television news cameras, along with a special song written by fourth- and fifth-grade teacher Cony Miner to the tune of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Miner and fellow teacher Carmen Perez-Brooks said the past few school days have been spent talking about the highlights of Reagan’s presidency and about Alzheimer’s disease.

“It’s sad because he probably doesn’t know we’re here celebrating his birthday,” said Anthony Tercero, 10.

In a statement released by the White House, Bush said, “America knows you came here 20 years ago and changed the world. For all that, your country thanks you, Mr. President. Your country honors you. And your country loves you.”

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Times staff writer Kathleen Howe in Washington contributed to this story.