President Ronald Reagan waves just before he is shot outside a Washington hotel on March 30, 1981. From left are secret service agent Jerry Parr, in raincoat, who pushed Reagan into the limousine, press secretary James Brady, who was seriously wounded; Reagan; Michael Deaver, Reagan’s aide; an unidentified policeman; Washington policeman Thomas K. Delahanty, who was shot; and secret service agent Timothy J. McCarthy, who was shot in the stomach. (White House photo)
Jerry Parr, a Secret Service agent who helped save a wounded Ronald Reagan during a 1981 assassination attempt, has died, his wife said Friday. He was 85.
Carolyn Parr said her husband died of congestive heart failure, three days short of their 56th wedding anniversary.
John Hinckley Jr
Jerry Parr was the lead agent the day John Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan and three others. After hearing six gunshots, he grabbed the President by the shoulders and pushed him into the car. Agent Ray Shaddick shoved Reagan into the back, made sure Reagan’s legs were in the car, and slammed the door shut.
At first Parr had the limousine headed to the White House, but Reagan’s blood was on a handkerchief pressed against his lips, so Parr redirected the car and the followup vehicles to George Washington Hospital.
Reagan spent two hours in surgery and was hospitalized for about two weeks. One of the doctors who treated Reagan said if the car had gone to the White House, the President would have died.
The bullet that hit Reagan ricocheted off the car and hit him below the left armpit.
“If we had been a split second slower, he could have been hit in the head,” Shaddick told CNN in 2011.
Hinckley is now allowed to stay with his mother in Williamsburg for 17 days a month.
Parr didn’t notice the small wound as he checked Reagan in the car but once he saw the President spit up blood, he knew they had to go to the closest hospital.
Parr and his wife co-wrote a biography of him called “In The Secret Service: The True Story of the Man Who Saved President Reagan’s Life.”
According to a website for the book, Parr was a Secret Service agent from 1962 to 1985. He was the special agent in charge for President Jimmy Carter and for Reagan. After he retired he became a minister.
Nancy Reagan said Friday that Parr was “one of my true heroes.”
“Without Jerry looking out for Ronnie on March 30, 1981, I would have certainly lost my best friend and roommate to an assassin’s bullet,” she said. “Jerry was not only one of the finest Secret Service agents to ever serve this country, but one of the most decent human beings I’ve ever known. He was humble but strong, reserved but confident, and blessed with a great sense of humor. It is no wonder that he and my husband got along so well.”
Parr was inspired to become a Secret Service agent in part after seeing the 1939 movie “Code of the Secret Service.” The star of the picture? Ronald Reagan.
“I did tell him about it once after the assassination attempt,” Parr recalled four years ago. “And he told me, he said, ‘Well, it was really the cheapest movie I ever made.’ ” Some reports say Reagan also called it the worst movie he ever made.
The Parrs have three daughters and four granddaughters.
