Early Life
He was born in Los Angeles, California, to Irene Flaugher (born 1916- died December 26, 1985), an unwed woman from Kentucky who became pregnant through a relationship with U.S. Army corporal John Bourgholtzer (died 1993). He was adopted by Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman shortly after his birth.
Michael grew up with the Reagan family in Beverly Hills, California, and later nearby Pacific Palisades. He was sent to boarding school when he was six and spent a total of four days per month visiting his father and mother. One childhood story he has told that introduced him to politics was how at the age of 8, he asked his father for a raise in his allowance. At the time, around 1953, his allowance was $1 a week. Ronald Reagan said that since he was paying 90 percent of his earnings to the federal government as income tax, he was not able to increase Michael's allowance. This, according to Michael, was how he was introduced to the subject of tax cuts and how that affected people.
In 1964 he graduated from the Judson School, a boarding school outside of Scottsdale, Arizona. At his high school graduation, Ronald Reagan introduced himself to his son by saying, "My name is Ronald Reagan. What's yours?" He replied, "I'm your son Mike." "Oh," said Ronald Reagan. "I didn't recognize you." He briefly attended Arizona State University.
According to Nancy Reagan in her memoirs published in 1989, Reagan disclosed to his parents in 1987 a very painful incident in his boyhood that he had kept secret for many years. "At the age of 8, he had been sexually molested by a camp counselor, who had also taken nude pictures of him.... Poor Mike had spent his whole life racked with guilt and in constant fear that these pictures would someday surface in a way that might embarrass him and, especially, his adoptive father." Speaking at the opening of the Michael Reagan Center in Spring, Texas, October 7, 2005, Michael said, "At 8 years old, I thought I was going to hell." Michael said the experience drastically changed him: "I cussed God and his Son. I wanted to do anything I could to earn my way into hell." Michael said he was horrified that the pictures would be made public and ruin the lives of his family.
Read more about this topic: Michael Reagan
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“I got a little secretarial job after college, but I thought of it as a prelude. Education, work, whatever you did before marriage, was only a prelude to your real life, which was marriage.”
—Bonnie Carr (c. early 1930s)
“Taking food alone tends to make one hard and coarse. Those accustomed to it must lead a Spartan life if they are not to go downhill. Hermits have observed, if for only this reason, a frugal diet. For it is only in company that eating is done justice; food must be divided and distributed if it is to be well received.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)