New York City. There are 5 boroughs, or counties, that comprise the boundaries of New York City: New York County (Manhattan); Bronx County, Richmond County (Staten Island), Kings County (Brooklyn) and Queens County. Usually, there is a little more specificity as to where someone was born when it comes to an obituary.
Nancy Reagan was born in Flushing, Queens. So in a way, stating she was born in New York City is wholly accurate, and also provides accidental acknowledgement that Queens is part of New York City. For the Times, this is incredible. Usually, a reference to anything other than Manhattan gets labeled as being an "outer borough." So, of course they're right. She was born in New York City, and they don't have to mention Queens, or even "outer borough." And certainly not Flushing.
Anyone who has been following these postings, or who has listened to me rant, knows I always make fun of the NYT when it comes time for them to describe a locality outside of Manhattan, but still part of New York City. For four boroughs that are connected by numerous bridges, tunnels, ferries and rail links, the "outer borough" designation always makes me laugh at their sense of place.
I wrote about Nancy's Flushing, Queens birth ages ago in a posting when a unauthorized biography of Ms. Reagan came out by Kitty Kelly. She identified the house, which turned out to be three blocks from where I grew up.
Reading that Anne's (Nancy's) mother was an actress and lived in that Flushing locale, makes me think that perhaps her mother might have made silent movies. Astoria, where movies were made then, and even now, is not far from the house. And many actors and actresses of that silent film era lived in the Beechhurst, or Whitestone, areas of Queens, just to the north of that area of Flushing. Flushing would be a step below those communities, however.
Anne (Nancy) didn't live there long. At two she was sent to live with relatives in Bethesda, Maryland after the father abandoned the family. All this is small potatoes to the full story of Ms. Reagan life. What still holds my interest is the power of coincidence that I wrote about in that long ago post.
My mother and father bought a house in 1946 three blocks from where Anne (Nancy) Reagan was born and my mother's older brother Howard, my uncle, grew up with Ronald Reagan in Tampico, Illinois, where my mother, and her younger brother Vernon were also born. They were the Cook family.
My mother always talked about that. The famous schoolhouse photo of young Ronnie in the lower left, second row, also shows my uncle Howard nearly square in the center, third row, third from left, wearing a necktie.
Ronald's family moved away from Tampico and settled in nearby Dixon. But Tampico is the birthplace of Ronald Reagan and where he went to school in his early years. I had a distant cousin (Don Kirst) who commemorated the Reagans with a mural he painted on the side of a brick building in Tampico.
Much is being remembered of how strong a relationship Nancy and Ronald had. Regis Philbin once described a scene where Ronnie swam out quite a bit offshore, and kept going to a point where it seemed dangerous to be that far out. Ronald had been a lifeguard, so ocean swimming was something he had experience with, and he was still in good shape. But as he got further away from the shore, Nancy kept getting closer and closer to the water's edge to watch him. He was "her rock" Regis said. She wasn't going to let him out of her sight until she knew he was back safely on land.
Nancy Reagan accomplished a lot, in many phases of her life, as the lengthy obituary describes. And in her passing, she still accomplished something.
Without knowing it, she got the NYT to admit in print that Queens is part of New York City. Quite a woman.
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