Lunch held more interest than Ronald Reagan that day, but her respect rose, as did he.
By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published June 12, 2004
She had met every president since Harry Truman, so the chance encounter with a presidential wanna-be didn't hold much significance.
Particularly when she was heading to lunch.
But Helen Fister still remembers the day in 1976 when then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan visited the U.S. Capitol to schmooze with the power players who might help him clinch the presidential nomination.
It was the only time she met Reagan and, looking back, hardly the type of exchange you'd expect with someone destined to become a dominating figure in history.
Fister was nearing the end of her 34 years working in the Capitol's procurement office. She was used to rubbing shoulders with the who's who of Washington, D.C. Besides, she was hungry.
This week, the 81-year-old Citrus Hills resident recounted her fleeting introduction to Reagan in the Senate's private dining room.
"Someone said, "Meet the governor of California,' " she recalled.
"I said, "How do you do?' and went on in."
That was it. A memory that became memorable only in retrospect.
"I had to get to lunch and get back," she now explains. "I wasn't wasting any time."
Four years later, Fister made up for the lack of interest. She voted for Reagan, who became the country's 40th president.
Then, she got to work helping to organize his inauguration ceremonies, just as she had for Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter before him.
For the first time, the Capitol's architect decided the event should be held on the west side of the building, rather than the east side. Fister still has a photo from the day showing the huge flags draped on the stately building, the colorful military band, the rows of dignitaries.
The new president gave her a gift she remains grateful for, Fister said. He established an "early out" for federal employees who had worked more than 30 years but weren't of retirement age, allowing them to retire and start collecting Social Security.
She took him up on it. January 1981 marked the beginning of her retirement and a great presidency, she said.
Fister, a staunch Republican who founded the Citrus County women's Republican club, came to admire the man she met ever so briefly that day in the Senate restaurant. She liked his steadfastness.
"You could depend on what he said," she said.
Seeing Reagan's flag-draped casket lie in state this week held special resonance for the longtime federal employee. Forty years ago, it was Fister who rushed to order hundreds of yards of black material to drape over the wooden stands lining the Rotunda when John F. Kennedy's body lay in state after his assassination.
This time, she just watched her TV set with quiet reverance.
