Ronald Reagan's ties to Orange County run long and deep. Indeed, this is the heart of Reagan country.
Orange County is where, during a 1962 speech, a woman came out of the audience and re-registered the lifelong Democrat to the Republican Party.
Reagan kicked off his 1984 presidential re-election bid at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley, attracting 58,000, with another 20,000 turned away. The county had delivered Reagan a 350,000-vote margin of victory in 1980 and upped it to 430,000 in his landslide second win. The county never voted against Reagan.
Of course, that didn't mean there weren't dissenters. Some of those made it to his 1970 appearance at California State University, Fullerton, heckling him and receiving a rebuke from the candidate: "Shut up and grow up."
According to Register archives, he visited the county at least 54 times between 1965 and 1994.
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1965: Reagan led off the year Feb. 25 with a rousing speech to Newport Beach business and professional leaders at the Balboa Bay Club, telling them: "Once you wind up a government agency and turn it loose, it runs wild.'' He made at least three more visits that year, including stops at the Santa Ana High School gymnasium, the fifth annual county Economic Outlook Conference at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, and a private Anaheim dinner.
1966: Orange County was a Reagan destination seven times as his gubernatorial campaign hammered at the Democratic administration of Gov. Edmund G. Brown Sr. At a May 21 appearance in Anaheim, he called for an investigation of the university system after a dance at the University of California, Berkeley, allegedly involved "sexual misconduct, lewd films and the use of narcotics.''
1967: Buoyed by his new job, Gov. Reagan made six appearances before receptive crowds in Orange County, stopping several times in Anaheim and once in Newport Beach. On May 6, greeting about 100,000 people who had come to dedicate the new Orange County Airport terminal, Reagan said: "Now that I've seen this wonderful new airport, I know it's easy to get to Orange County if I ever need political sanctuary.''
1968: During three visits, Reagan logged appearances in Anaheim and Mission Viejo and drew a "disappointing crowd'' of 50 at a stop in Garden Grove. During two of the visits, he blasted university students, saying he would not tolerate "violence and barbarism'' among dissidents. He also dedicated Saddleback College, saying it would be an "institution of opportunity and fulfillment."
1969: University students again were a target at one of three county appearances. He told students at Santa Ana College in December that he didn't believe 18-year-olds should have the right to vote. Doing so would turn campuses into "political camps,'' he said. At an earlier appearance in September, Reagan - standing side by side with the Rev. Billy Graham - sang "Faith of Our Fathers'' at a Billy Graham Crusade at Anaheim Stadium.
1970: In February, Reagan uttered his famous "Shut up and grow up'' admonition to students heckling him during an appearance at California State College, Fullerton. During seven other Orange County visits, Reagan made stops in Anaheim, Santa Ana, Newport Beach and Westminster, and went to President Nixon's Western White House in San Clemente for a meeting with Vice President Spiro Agnew.
1971: At a May 27 dinner at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim - one of three county appearances that year - Reagan told the crowd that student unrest is the fault of the "captive-student syndrome.''
1972: Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was a target during one of two Orange County appearances. In September remarks before the state Republican Central Committee meeting in Anaheim, Reagan said McGovern would make the United States a second-rate power. Reagan charged that the presidential hopeful would seek peace with the Soviet Union, which would be "a nightmare.''
1973: Plugging a tax-reform initiative that ultimately failed with voters, Reagan made five appearances in Orange County. At a closed-door meeting with members of the influential GOP Lincoln Club, he asked the group for $1.5 million to help the initiative drive.
1974: Inflation will not be curbed until "the jokers in Congress'' stop spending money, Reagan told a crowd in August at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, one of three county visits.
1975: In his first appearance in Orange County as a presidential candidate, Reagan discussed the campaign before the annual convention of the Orange County Republican Women Federated in Newport Beach in December.
1976: In May, Reagan attacked lenient judges in a speech before the California Police Officers Association annual convention in Anaheim. The next day, he took verbal potshots at President Ford at a speech at Leisure World in Laguna Hills, telling GOP faithful that they should discard the status quo. Status quo, he said, is Latin for "the mess we're in.''
1977: Reagan made three Orange County visits, all in Anaheim. He stumped at the California Dental Association convention, at a fund-raiser for Assembly candidate Bruce Nestande and at a meeting of the Orange County Medical Association.
1979: After skipping events in 1978, Reagan was back three times, hinting in October at a fund-raising dinner in Irvine that he might run again for president. He blasted away at government policies at subsequent appearances in Costa Mesa and at Santa Ana Country Club.
1980: Democrats were the targets of appearances at Anaheim and Leisure World in Seal Beach.
1981: During his only county visit, a fund-raising dinner in Costa Mesa in August, Reagan criticized the Libyan government. He also brushed aside concerns that he had not been awakened after the downing of two Libyan fighters.
1984: Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley was the site of the president's re-election campaign kickoff in September. About 58,000 attended.
1986: After a yearlong absence, Reagan returned to the county in November for back-to-back appearances. He stumped for Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Ed Zschau in Anaheim and for GOP candidates statewide at Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa.
1988: Making up for no Reagan appearances the year before, 50 people paid $100,000 a couple to attend a fund-raising luncheon for the Reagan Presidential Library at the Coto de Caza estate of developer William Lyon. In two other visits, Reagan made appearances for U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson in Irvine and pulled a crowd of 15,000 to California State University, Fullerton, for his final Orange County appearance as president, a campaign rally on behalf of Vice President George H.W. Bush.
1990: Reagan accidentally called Pete Wilson a "great governor" instead of "great mayor" of San Diego, during a Garden Grove speech in November at which he stumped for Wilson's first gubernatorial campaign and for Garden Grove Assemblyman Curt Pringle's re-election effort. He was also on hand with Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush for the July opening of the Nixon library in Yorba Linda.
1992: "Here I am, at the prime of my life, out of work," the 80-year old quipped in a January dinner speech to the Industrial League of Orange County at the Irvine Hyatt. In November, he spoke on behalf of George H. W. Bush's re-election effort to a crowd of 11,000 at Yorba Regional Park in Anaheim.
1994: Reagan was among the numerous dignitaries, including five U.S. presidents, on hand for Richard Nixon's April funeral in Yorba Linda.
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Source: Orange County Register archives.