Margaret Cleaver Gordon

(October 18, 1910 – December 22, 2001)

Eureka College alumnus (Class of 1932)

Three sisters—Elizabeth, Helen, and Margaret Cleaver—figure prominently in the history of Eureka College and each will be featured in a vignette during this month's series. The Cleaver sisters were the daughters of Rev. Ben Hill Cleaver who pastored congregations of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Dixon and Eureka, Illinois. All three of the Cleaver sisters graduated from Eureka College.

The youngest sister, Margaret "Mugs" Cleaver, is our Helen of Troy. Or, to use another archaic Greek analogy, in terms of Aristotelian physics, she could be considered the "final cause" that brought Ronald Wilson "Dutch" Reagan to Eureka College in September 1928. When considered in these terms, "Mugs" Cleaver was an unparalleled woman of distinction.

Back in Dixon, "Mugs" Cleaver had been the pride of North Side High School where she was elected the president of the senior class. She was bright and cultured but considered somewhat humorless. Meanwhile, "Dutch" Reagan was elected the student body president at North Side where he was known as a good-natured practical joker. "Mugs" and "Dutch" were both involved in the school's Dramatic Society, and in their senior year they appeared opposite one another in a production of You and I. Opposites do attract, and by the end of their senior year the two were considered inseparable high school sweethearts.

When Rev. Cleaver decided to accept the invitation to serve the Eureka Christian Church and Margaret announced her plans to attend Eureka College following high school graduation, things began to look bleak for "Dutch" as he realized the vast distance that separated Dixon from Eureka. But as fate (and folklore) would have it, this event triggered an academic epiphany in young "Dutch" as he began to contemplate his own college career at Eureka College. After all, the school had football, theater, and "Mugs" so it certainly appealed to the budding-scholar.

Both "Mugs" and "Dutch" were popular students at Eureka College, but she was more interested in academics and he was more interested in social and extracurricular activities. She pledged with the Delta Zeta sorority and he pledged with the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, but there were growing differences between the college sweethearts even though they had become engaged. Claiming that she was not satisfied with Eureka College's academic stimulation, "Mugs" attended the University of Illinois during her junior year, but she returned to Eureka the following year and graduated in June 1932.

Upon graduation "Mugs" and her sister Helen traveled to France for a year (1932-33) where they spent the darkest months of the Great Depression conversing with American expatriates in Paris. "Dutch" searched unsuccessfully for work in Chicago and eventually landed a job in radio in the Quad Cities region. While in France, "Mugs" met an officer in the U.S. Consular Service named James Waddell Gordon, Jr., and shortly thereafter she sent a "Dear John" letter to Reagan and returned his engagement ring and TKE pin. She married Gordon on June 18, 1935, at a ceremony in Dixon where her father officiated. The Gordons lived in Glasgow, Scotland, for three years, but eventually returned to the United States and resided in Richmond, Virginia, where James became a prominent attorney. “Mugs” remained a homemaker and raised five children.

Nearly fifty years later, Mrs. Gordon reflected upon her break-up with "Dutch" Reagan and stated that "I didn't want to bring up my children in Hollywood." Acknowledging Reagan's fondness for the world of movies, she further declared that "He had an inability to distinguish between fact and fancy." She was also critical of Reagan's apparent lack of regular church attendance as president. As the daughter of a preacher, she noted that "Even Nixon held services in the White House!"

“Mugs” graduated from Eureka College on June 10, 1932, and that was the last time that she ever walked “neath the elms upon the campus.”