Marathon Pundit: Money goal reached: Tampico Reagan statue coming this fall

How the Reagan statue will appear

There is great news in Illinois' Reagan Country. A statue depicting a young Ronald Reagan playing on a cannon will be unveiled this autumn.

From SaukValley.com:

After 6 years, a Tampico group has raised enough money to pay for a boyhood statue of Ronald Reagan.

The Tampico Area Historical Society reached its goal of $50,000, which will pay for the statue that was completed years ago. The group plans to unveil it this fall.

Until about a week ago, the society was $10,000 short, but a couple of residents took it upon themselves to donate the rest, said Joan Johnson, the society’s president.

LeClaire, Iowa artist Ted McElhiney sculpted the statue, which depicts Reagan as a boy, playing with a cannon he liked in the park across the street from his home. That cannon is long gone – removed for scrap metal during World War II.

It's been a bittersweet year for Illinois Reaganophiles. Earlier this year the University of Chicago razed the apartment where Reagan and his family lived in 1915 after moving from Tampico, where "Dutch" was born in four years earlier. The Reagans moved back to Tampico in 1919--the statue shows the future president from that time.

The statue will stand in the small town's Ronald Reagan Park.

Donations to the statue fund are still being accepted.

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