But when President Reagan returned to Eureka in May 1992, delivered the commencement address and attended a fundraiser for the scholarship named is his honor, he brought his wife. Uribe thought about that visit on Sunday afternoon after Mrs. Reagan died of congestive heart failure. She was 94 years old.
Meeting Mrs. Reagan was “a really nice surprise,” Uribe said.
“She was very poised, very graceful, and friendly,” Uribe remembered. “We all commented that she was a sharp dresser, too.”
At the time of the visit, Uribe was only 19. Now, 24 years later, the significance of the event means even more.
“I was around the First Lady,” Uribe said.
After graduating from Middletown High School in 1991, Uribe was awarded the Ronald E. Reagan Scholarship, which is given to six applicants a year and is based on leadership and academics.
Reagan Fellows receive a four-year, full-tuition scholarship at Eureka College, as well as stipends to cover the program’s special travel and mentoring opportunities.
Without the scholarship, she said, there was “no way” she could have afforded to attend the Liberal Arts college.
She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in athletic training, then earned her master’s degree in physical therapy from Andrews University. She work as a physical therapist at Grace Works at Home, a home health care company in Centerville.
Uribe, 43, and her husband, Eduardo, live in Middletown with their four children ages 5-17:
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