A piece of Dixon history: the other Reagan brother

Editor’s note: This is part one of a three-part series. Look for part 2 on Jan. 31 and part 3 on Feb. 14.

DIXON – He was born in Tampico, but his boyhood home was in Dixon. He attended Dixon High School and later graduated from Eureka College. After becoming a sportscaster at WOC radio in Iowa, he auditioned with Warner Brothers and moved to California. As his career progressed, he became widely known and was elected president twice.

I’m talking about Neil “Moon” Reagan, Ronald Reagan’s older brother by two years. This column will reveal some of the surprising details about “the other Reagan brother,” another Dixonite who made Dixon proud.

John Neil Reagan was born in Tampico on Sept. 16, 1908, the firstborn child of John (Jack) and Nelle Reagan. In 1920 when Neil was 12, the family moved to 816 South Hennepin in Dixon when his father helped to open the new Fashion Boot Shop on South Galena Avenue.

‘He flavors everything’

After entering Dixon High School in 1922, Neil’s friends nicknamed him “Moon” after the popular Moon Mullins comic strip character that first released in 1923. Like Moon Mullins, Moon Reagan was known as a “low rent but likeable sort of riffraff.” Coming from “a poor family,” as Neil described it, he worked part time at his dad’s shoe shop during his high school years.

Most of his key teenage activities took place on South Hennepin Avenue, now also known as Reagan Way. He was active at the First Christian Church at Second and Hennepin, though he later became a Catholic at age 18. He attended South Dixon High School at Fifth and Hennepin, only three blocks from home. Taller than most kids his age, Moon played basketball and (tight) end in football and was involved in dramatic productions.

When the family moved to West Everett on the north side in 1923, he continued at South Dixon High, while Ronald attended North Dixon High at Ottawa and Morgan. But the two schools combined to form one Dixon football team, and Neil and Ronald played together during Neil’s junior and senior years.

According to historian Anne Edwards, he was “an extrovert, a great promoter and salesman for whatever he wanted.” His Dixon High School senior yearbook said, “He is the vanilla of society. He flavors everything.”

Becoming the younger brother

After graduating in 1926, he landed a job doing “cost work” in the office at the Medusa Portland cement plant in Dixon. However, when Ronald graduated from Dixon High in 1928, he went to Eureka College. Even though Neil felt that going to college was unnecessary, Ronald persuaded him to join him at Eureka in the fall of 1929.

When Neil walked onto the Eureka college campus, the reality set in. He was just a freshman, while his little brother was a well-known sophomore involved in sports, drama, the fraternity and campus activities.

“I guess I’ve really never gotten over it completely,” said Neil. “I automatically became the younger brother.” And no matter how much Neil succeeded, he would remain the “little brother” in Ronald’s shadow for the rest of his life.

At Eureka, they were both standouts and student leaders. Each was elected, Ronald first, as president of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and each was elected as president of the Student Senate. They both also earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and economics, Ronald in 1932 and Neil in 1933.

Becoming a radio star

In the depths of the Great Depression, WOC radio in Davenport hired Ronald as a sports announcer in 1932. At the time, the popularity of radio was exploding. In 1930, 40% of U.S. households owned a radio. But by 1940, that number had skyrocketed to 90%. So, throughout the 1930s, millions of Americans – and hundreds of advertisers – embraced this new broadcast medium that instantaneously spread ideas and personalities directly into homes.

A year later, when Neil graduated from Eureka, Ronald got Neil an audition as a sportscaster at WHO, WOC’s 50,000-watt sister station in Des Moines. Neil, who was a sports fanatic like his brother, nailed the audition and was hired on the spot. For a time, the two single brothers lived in an apartment together in Des Moines, and they even had a radio sports show together.

Soon, Ronald’s sportscasting started getting national attention as he held the top sportscaster role at WHO. Meanwhile, Neil’s radio career took him to the smaller station, WOC in Davenport. In 1935, Neil married a Des Moines girl, Bessie Hoffman, as Ronald stood up for Neil at the wedding.

In part 2 on Jan. 31, we’ll trace Neil’s path, right behind Ronald, to the film industry in Hollywood. We’ll also reveal how Neil was elected president – not just twice but four times.

• Dixon native Tom Wadsworth is a writer, speaker and occasional historian. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament.