Ronald Reagan Statue Unveiled In Capitol Rotunda

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An overjoyed and teary-eyed Nancy Reagan watched with delight as a bronze statue of her beloved late husband Ronald Reagan was unveiled in the U.S. Capitol.

A blue cloth cover was pulled from the seven-foot statue of the 40th president Wednesday as Mrs. Reagan, 87, and a crowd packed with Reagan era-policymakers, looked on in the Capitol's Rotunda. The statue cast Reagan flashing his legendary ah-shucks grin, the expression that transformed his face whenever he was ready to deliver the punchline of a joke.

Mrs. Reagan, seated next to her husband's friend, former Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III, said that it was nice to return to the Rotunda for a happy occasion. Ronald Reagan, who was president from 1981 to 1989, lay in state there after his death at 93 in 2004.