Updated:
October 6, 2006
n
March 5, 1952 Ronald Reagan
married actress Nancy Reagan
at a church named the Little
Brown Church in the San Fernando
Valley. Actor
William Holden and his wife,
actress Brenda Marshall were
the best man and matron of
honor. Following
a small reception at the Holden’s
home, Ronald and Nancy Reagan
drove to Riverside. They
spent the first night of
their honeymoon at the Mission
Inn. In
her autobiography simply
titled Nancy (1980), she wrote
the following:
“The
manager had placed a beautiful
bouquet of roses in the bridal
suite. The next morning before
we left, we delivered them
to an elderly woman across
the
hall we had learned was quite
ill. It
somehow seemed fitting to
share our happiness.”
In
May 1, 1993 a “Grand Opening
Gala” was held at the Mission
Inn. The
hotel was closed in 1985 for
restoration. The
work was nearly complete when
in 1988 the developer went bankrupt. The
hotel sat empty until December
of 1992 when Riverside businessman
Mr. Duane Roberts purchased
the hotel. President
Ronald and Mrs. Ronald Reagan
were the honorary chairmen of
the gala. Although
the couple was unable to attend
the event, the President wrote in a letter published in the gala program,,
Nancy
and I are very honored to
be
Honorary Co-Chairmen of the
Mission Inn Grand Opening
Gala. A
commemoration of this magnitude
gives us the opportunity
to celebrate the rebirth of
one of our Nation’s finest
landmarks.
As
many of you know, this occasion
is also personally pleasing
for us because we spent our
honeymoon at the Mission
Inn. Over
the years we have always
felt a great fondness for
Riverside, and for the celebration
of our life together at the
Mission Inn (p.2)..
In
honor of Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s
1952 visit to the Mission Inn
and the visits of the other US
Presidents, a local artist, by
the name of Bonnie Brown, was
commissioned to paint portraits
of the nine US presidents who
had visited the Mission Inn. The
portraits are copies of paintings
from the White House in Washington,
D.C. The
nine portraits hang in the lobby
of the Mission Inn.
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