SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Illinois lawmakers remembered President Ronald Reagan on Wednesday as a leader who was forthright and charismatic at a time when they say America needed a boost in morale.

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO Ronald Reagan campaigns for the presidency during a 1980 visit to southern Illinois. THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO President Ronald Reagan visited Krone Farm in Du Quoin in 1988.

Jack Block, a now-90-year-old Illinois farm boy, was former President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Agriculture from 1981 ...

President Ronald Reagan often is described in glowing terms. He led the nation's remarkable economic revival in the 1980s and took a firm stand against Communism - which ultimately triggered ...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Lawmakers are considering whether to put a statue on state Capitol grounds of Ronald Reagan, the Illinois native who served as the country's 40th president.

On Feb. 6, 1984, President Ronald Reagan was riding high as he celebrated his 73rd birthday in Dixon, Ill., the county seat of Lee County and the town where he lived as a youth for a dozen years ...

President Ronald Reagan's 73rd birthday is celebrated in the Lancaster Gym at Dixon High School on Feb. 6, 1984. Reagan and his family moved into a Dixon home when he was 9.

We also hosted Mr. Quaid at Reagan’s boyhood home in Dixon, Illinois, where we had an advance screening of the film in the town’s historic 900-seat theater.

TAMPICO, Ill. – Ronald Wilson Reagan, born 100 years ago in northwestern Illinois, spent his formative years here living, working, studying and developing into the man that would rise to the ...

Long before that, Reagan was a boy from Illinois. According to his biography on the White House’s website, which is provided by the White House Historical Association, Ronald Wilson Reagan was ...