Nancy Reagan and the Agent Who Took a Bullet for Her Husband Shared Special Bond

On the final day of Ronald Reagan's presidency, Jan. 20, 1989, Tim McCarthy made the long trek from Washington, D.C, to California with the president and first lady Nancy Reagan.

For more than three decades, Mrs. Reagan held McCarthy close to her heart. If not for McCarthy, she very well may have lost her husband to an assassin's bullets on March 30, 1981. Until her own dying days, Mrs. Reagan remained grateful to the Secret Service agent who jumped between her husband and a gunman.

On Friday, Mrs. Reagan, who died on Sunday, will be laid to rest beside the president. He passed in 2004.

"She will be very happy to be with her husband again," McCarthy told reporters this week.

After the world learned of her death, many reporters reached out to McCarthy, now in his 22nd year as Orland Park's police chief. Again, he relived the ill-fated day that forever changed his relationship with the Reagans.

"After the assassination attempt, my wife was in the chapel praying with Mrs. Reagan and Mrs. Brady and others that were shot," he told NBC Chicago, "and a relationship developed from there."

• First Lady Nancy Reagan's Chicago Connection

The president had finished a speech in Washington, D.C., and was headed to his limousine. Agent McCarthy, then 31 years old and father to two toddlers, opened the door, and then he heard a gunshot. He spread his body out to cover the president and a bullet hit his chest, piercing his rib cage and tearing through his innards, damaging his lung, liver and diaphragm.

The president was pushed into the limo, but a bullet struck him, too. A D.C. police officer was wounded, as was White House Press Secretary Jim Brady.

Reagan later wrote about the episode in his autobiography.

"Tim McCarthy had bravely put his life on the line for me. Some weeks later, I was shown the TV shots of what happened that day. As I was being thrown into the limo, there, facing the camera between me and the gunman, spread-eagling himself to make as big a target as possible, was Tim McCarthy. He was shot right in the chest. Thank heaven he lived."

After leaving office, the president would fall victim to memory-robbing Alzheimer's disease. While the nation might always remember McCarthy as the agent who took a bullet for the president (one of only four in American history to do so), Nancy Reagan always would remember him as the man who saved her Ronnie.

"Of course, after the assassination (attempt) they got to know me well," McCarthy told the Chicago Tribune. "They didn't know me at all before then."

McCarthy served two tours on protective detail. Most agents only serve a single tour. He served 14 years as a criminal investigator in Chicago, and was the special agent in charge of the Secret Service Chicago division from 1989 until his retirement in October 1993. McCarthy, now 66, has served as chief of the Orland Park Police Department since May 1994.

A flip of the coin with another agent put McCarthy by the president's side that day.

“That coin flip changed my future," McCarthy told the Daily Southtown on the 25th anniversary of the assassination attempt.

The last time McCarthy saw Mrs. Reagan was two years ago, in March 2014. He and his wife flew to Los Angeles for a visit at her home. He told NBC how he tried to cut the visit short because he could see Mrs. Reagan was ailing, but she would have none of it. They sat together, talked, and posed for a photograph.

Mrs. Reagan, a lifelong conservative, grew up on Lake Shore Drive. McCarthy, a Democrat, grew up on the South Side. Ironically, McCarthy and Mrs. Reagan were both kids of Chicago police officers.

McCarthy's dad was a Chicago cop. And Mrs. Reagan's mom, Edith Luckett Davis, wore a Chicago police officer's badge during World War II.

Just before they left the White House, McCarthy presented the first lady with her mother's retired Chicago police star.

“It was vague to her," McCarthy told the Sun-Times this week. “The only thing Mrs. Reagan really knew was she didn’t think her mother arrested anyone.”

One day, Tim McCarthy will commit his thoughts and memories of Ronald and Nancy Reagan to paper and publish a book. He says he has many fond memories of his relationship with the Reagans.

A month ago, he sent flowers to Mrs. Reagan to mark her late husband's birthday.

She sent a thank-you note.

"It was our last contact, so it's probably more important than any of the others," he said.

At her funeral, four first ladies will be in attendance: Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, who's running for president, and Rosalynn Carter. So much time has passed, so much history. The men and women working security details today weren't even born yet when McCarthy was on post.

With Mrs. Reagan's passing, another flesh-and-blood reminder of that terrible day — aside from the scars on his chest — passes into memory.

"It's very sad," McCarthy told reporters. "It's the end of an era, so to speak."