An Interview With Peggy Grande, Assistant to Ronald Reagan

Hired just out of college, Grande started working for the Los Angeles office of Ronald Reagan at the start of his busy post-presidency. Learning to stay three steps ahead of his hectic schedule, Grande became professionally invaluable to the president. She became fast friends with Mr. and Mrs. Reagan, and a much-needed confidante and aid after the president was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Grande always respected Reagan as a political icon, but over two-and-a-half decades came to admire the strength of his character. Her stories show that the president adored by millions was as good a man in front of the cameras as behind them, and stayed true to his core principles, in her words: “faith, optimism, patriotism.”

Did you ever expect to work for Reagan? What made this such a great job?

I was too young to have worked in the Reagan White House, but I was always that nerdy little kid that loved politics and government, and the White House and history, just was fascinated by it. Especially for an ordinary girl from Southern California, all those years ago, I was quite an anomaly. I followed his career as a communications major in college – as president they called him the Great Communicator. So he was the convergence of everything I loved, and also a great man of values and faith and a great man of optimism and inspiration.

Fast forward my life all those years later to sit at the feet of this extraordinary man was a blessing I never expected.

What was the post-presidency like as opposed to his two terms in the White House?

The post-presidency was very non-political in a way. There’s no constituents, there’s no upcoming elections and so it’s a very different feel politically. He left the White House after eight successful years as an icon not only of the Republican Party but really as an icon on the world stage in a lot of ways. We had some very unlikely people come through the office, everybody from celebrities to sports figures to the world leaders he had become friendly with over the past few years – everybody from Gorbachev to Margaret Thatcher, and Mother Theresa to patriotic everyday ordinary Americans came to pay their respects. In a way I think it was the best of both worlds.

Those people that worked for him in the White House were very scheduled, with meeting after meeting and tons of people always in the room. But there were very treasured moments during the post-presidency with just a small staff, and pinch-me-moments when you and the secret service are riding in the back of the car with him in the motorcade and you’re thinking ‘how on earth does a girl like me wind up in a place like this?’

And your husband Greg got to play golf with him?

He did! I said ‘okay so I get to work all week and then you get to play on weekends?’ He said ‘I must serve my country. I must play golf with the president.’

Reagan was very much a part of my family, I feel like, in a lot of ways, I got to grow up with him. I started working for him when I was in my early twenties, and worked with him directly until my early thirties, and then stayed connected with him and Mrs. Reagan up until her passing last year. So 27 years of my professional and adult life were spent in one way or another connected to these remarkable people. And you can’t help but be changed in positive and wonderful ways if that’s what you grow up with.

As a young mother at the time, what did the Reagans teach you about being a parent?

It’s so funny that I wound up being a mother of four – and I can’t imagine my life any other way and love being a mother – but I guess I didn’t know I could do both. My own wonderful mother was a stay-at-home mom, and I had no idea how to navigate that space between career and family – being a good mom but also being an employee of excellence.

The Reagan’s were very supportive of my family way before there were mandates and rules and laws saying that they had to be so accommodating. I had three of my four children while I working for the president. We would go to the L.A. Zoo with Reagan pushing the stroller flanked by the secret service. And we celebrated birthdays, and Christmas, and Halloween with the Reagans.

Kids, of course, don’t care about titles. They don’t know whose important or not and if a toddler is going to throw a tantrum there’s nothing you can do. But my kids grew up knowing that the Reagans loved them and enjoyed their company and I got to watch them respond to that warmth in beautiful ways.

What made you and the Gipper such a good team?

Starting as an intern I never imagined I was starting a full-time job and that it would turn into a decade of full-time employment. It would have been easy to get lost in the moment, but they relied on me to do a job.

I couldn’t just keep pace with president Reagan, I had to stay three steps ahead. He would come to my desk and say ‘Peggy do you have the-’ and if I was really on my game I was already handing him what he was looking for. And he would just give me this surprised look like ‘how’d that happen?’

It must have been hard to say goodbye after so many years. Can you tell us about your last day at work?

It was bittersweet leaving them. Ronald Reagan ruined me and spoiled me because I will never have a better boss. But we are all called to be in a particular place at a particular time and when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s I realized I needed to stay and keep working. I felt like it was especially important for him, as a person of faith, to have people of faith surrounding him.

Was it a challenge to write about a character you have so much respect for?

It was certainly intimidating stepping into a space where a thousand books have already been written. But at the same time every book I’ve read captures part of him but not the way that I saw him and didn’t capture the side of him that I was so familiar with.

I had unique proximity to the character of the man, and I think the book really does shine a light on those years that were outside the public eye. People will be pleasantly surprised. I think he’s one of the few individuals you meet who, no matter how high a pedestal you put him on is he really lives up to that. And behind the scenes when you pull back the curtain, when the cameras aren’t rolling, and you think no one is watching, he’s a man of graciousness and gentlemanly kindness, faith and optimism.

So what were those books missing that you feel necessitated The President Will See You Now?

I think when you’re reading the book you really meet him. I take you with me. You see him as I saw him when I walked into his office. You walk into his home, you travel with him in the way that I saw him and that was in a very interactive very personal capacity. It wasn’t about policies. It was just ‘who is this man when no body was looking?

And the people who love Reagan will not be surprised, but be delighted to find that he really was everything you thought and hoped and wished. . and for those who didn’t like his politics they’ll see a beautiful humanity to him and have an appreciation for him as a man of character and consistency. What you saw was what you got.

If someone already knows, or thinks they know a lot about Reagan, should they read the book?

Some of the most poignant moments I witnessed are not about the people who have household names – it’s with the little Romanian woman who walks in and falls to the presidents feet and starts sobbing thanking him for freeing her and her family and her people from oppression.

It’s walking onto the back patio of their Bel Air home and, with the beautiful L.A. skyline and seeing the secret service who ordinarily would have been posted at the sliding glass door sitting next to the president providing him comfort and companionship, then realizing he’s not just sitting next to him, but he’s actually reached over and is holding his hand and beautiful moments like that that nobody got to see and nobody got to witness and experience.

How did Alzheimer’s change Reagan? How did that transformation changes his character?

I think he set a great example for us all. He became president at an age many people choose to retire. He proved there is so much more of life that so many of us could live, instead of putting it on the shelf because you’re 62 or 65. Here’s a man who pressed on after leaving the White House and after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s because he felt he still had unfinished business, and felt like he still had something to give back. He was a true public servant.

He was a complete gentleman despite his disease. Even in his late 80s he was offering me his elbow as we go up and down the stairs. He was very aware of the people around him and very appreciative, which has an impact on a young person because that’s not always the picture you have of people at the top, who tend to lord over people. That was never his way. He showed me that strength and a kind of graciousness can coexist.

I’ve heard lots of people say ‘I’m so glad he was okay in those final moments.’ As difficult as Alzheimer’s was he continued to be a man of faith. He was well cared for, and was surrounded by people who loved and cared about him all the way to the end.

That seems to provide a lot of comfort to people who wondered ‘what happened to him?’ after he stepped out of the public eye. He lived for thirteen more years after announcing to the world that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

How has the book been received?

The fascinating thing to me about the book launch has been that, I knew conservative media would embrace it and Reagan lovers all across the nation would love the book – the surprising part has been how much the other side has embraced it as well. From the Today Show to People magazine to Huffington post to Harper’s Bazaar and Women’s Fashion magazine, some very unlikely outlets for a conservative icon to be placed. I think there is this longing for political civility and for the kindness that wee all remember in the 1980s.

Those who remember Reagan remember this feeling of loving ourselves and loving America and being proud of being a beacon of freedom that shined so brightly all over the world. The book evokes all those feelings because yes, Ronald Reagan was the president but it wasn’t about him it was about ‘we the people’ collectively. And post-presidency he really carried that on and felt a duty and a responsibility to be available to the people who elected him.