After he left the White House, President Ronald Reagan came to Mayo Clinic several times for checkups and other medical care. The popular president and first lady stayed at the Kahler Hotel and and would often draw crowds of people waiting outside for a glimpse of him. He seemed to enjoy the attention, often taking the time to shake hands with the locals.
In September of 1989, President Reagan underwent brain surgery at Mayo when after a routine checkup physicians determined that a pool of blood had accumulated in his skull from an earlier fall from a horse. Half of his head was shaved for the surgery and Reagan donned a baseball cap to cover his head. As he left Rochester on a private plane, much to the apparent dismay of first lady Nancy Reagan, he decided to tip his hat to well-wishers revealing a less than presidential flattering half-shaved head. Nancy instinctively reached out with a hand to cover her husband's head but the deed was done -— and captured by Post-Bulletin photographer Merle Dalen. Needless to say, the photo made its way into newspapers across the country.
Classic Shot is a new weekly feature that recycles a historic, iconic or just plain interesting photo from the P-B archives. If you have a comment, sent it to gneumann@postbulletin.com .