The Teflon president in a swimsuit? New Reagan statue planned

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-hometown-reagan-statue-20140216,0,729077.story

The Teflon president in a swimsuit? New Reagan statue planned
A park where he once worked as a lifeguard will be home to a bronze depiction of President Reagan in his younger days.
By Ted Gregory


An artist's conception shows a planned statue of the young Ronald Reagan at the park where he once served as a lifeguard in Dixon, Ill.

Decades before he became known as the Teflon president and the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan was a hunk in trunks.

For seven summers on the banks of the Rock River, north of Reagan's boyhood hometown of Dixon, Ill., the young man who became president monitored the beach at Lowell Park. Locals say more than a few women faked peril in the water so that the strapping, handsome fellow who sometimes parted his hair down the center would whisk them to safety.

"There are a lot of people who'll come to town for a Reagan visit and the first thing they ask is, 'Where is Lowell Park?'" Dixon Mayor Jim Burke said. "Then they'll ask where is the boyhood home."

Which is why Burke is leading a $200,000, privately funded effort to place what some might consider a slightly unpresidential sculpture of Reagan on the northern banks of the Rock River in Lowell Park. The sculpture of young Ron shows him in a one-piece tank top swimsuit that was ubiquitous in that era.