Nancy Reagan had first successful ship christening at Ingalls

Nancy Reagan had a special relationship with the Coast, and with Pascagoula in particular.

Alice Jackson, a young journalist at the time, remembers two trips Reagan made to the Coast. She toured Ingalls Shipbuilding during her husband's 1980 campaign for president, then she returned as first lady in May 1981 for the christening of the USS Ticonderoga at Ingalls. Reagan sponsored the ship.

Jackson was a reporter with the Sun newspaper, which would later combine with the afternoon Daily Herald to become the Sun Herald. The media was allowed to ask questions and stand fairly close to Nancy Reagan the first time she visited Ingalls during the campaign.

"That was the first time I ever saw her in person," Jackson said. "She looked so frail. I had the distinct feeling she was very, very tired. She had been on the campaign trail."

Reagan looked very different for her second visit as first lady. She was bright-eyed and rested, Jackson said. The media was kept at a distance, though.

Reagan wore one of her trademark suits, red with white accents over a red-and-white blouse. Jackson remembers how petite Reagan was.

"She was very elegant and gracious," said Jackson, now associate director of marketing and communications at the University of South Alabama.

Reagan's niece, Anne Davis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, accompanied her to the christening as maid of honor for the ship.

Afterward, Reagan and her niece attended a reception at the Longfellow House in Pascagoula.

Reagan told the gathered crowd that she had previously tried to christen a ship and was unable to break the bottle across the bow because it was encased in some sort of metal, she said. She said she kept the dented bottle as a souvenir.

"At least now I've christened a ship properly," Reagan said, "and I gave it an extra pat and a kiss and a pat to make sure."

Jerry St. Pe', who would later head Ingalls, remembers how nervous Nancy Reagan was before the christening. He said she was escorted into a conference room, where photographs were posted of other ship christenings with the bottles breaking. "That helped her confidence," said St. Pe', who is now retired.

St. Pe' found Nancy to be "a very charming and unassuming lady." He said she was everything you would want a president's wife to be, and a sponsor christening a ship. He found her to be very patriotic, as well. She wore red both times she visited Ingalls, he said.

In 1976, Ronald and Nancy Reagan visited the Coast during his unsuccessful run for president against Gerald Ford.

They made an appearance at the Buena Vista with actor Jimmy Stewart and Trent Lott, then a young congressman.

This story was originally published March 6, 2016 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Nancy Reagan had first successful ship christening at Ingalls ."