The US Secret Service agent credited with saving Ronald Reagan’s life on the day he was shot has died aged 85. The cause was congestive heart failure.
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Reagan had been shot in the chest by deranged would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr.
The Times reports Parr pushed Reagan into a nearby limo and got on top of him.
The president was shot in the chest and was suffering from internal bleeding.
Doctors later said that any delay would have cost the president his life.
Parr, who has written about his experiences with the agency, was first inspired to pursue a career in law enforcement as a child while watching the movie “Code of the Secret Service”, starring the actor and future commander-in-chief Ronald Reagan, Parr’s biography says. “There isn’t a mistrust within my mind”. “Jerry Parr is a hero”.
‘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.
During his tenure he protected four Vice Presidents and was Special Agent in Charge (Head of White House Detail) for Presidents Carter and Reagan.
Jerry Studstill Parr came out September 16, 1930, in Montgomery, Ala., the ultimate girl or boy of Oliver Parr, a dollar sign on serviceman and Patricia Studstill, a beauty therapist.
He is described as having lonely adolescence that involved the divorce of his parents and an abusive stepfather. Parr called this his “counter-instinctive behavior”.
“By one means or another instinctively I just watched out the back window as we were moving, and I saw three bodies on the walkway”, he said.
After leaving the Secret Service, Parr became a pastor at a church in Washington and began humanitarian efforts.
The assassination attempt cemented a bond between the Reagans and Parr.
Nancy Reagan said Friday that Parr was “one of my true heroes”. He was humble but strong, reserved but confident, and blessed with a great sense of humour. “It is no wonder that he and my husband got along so well”, Nancy Regan said.
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After Parr’s retirement, he visited the Oval Office, where the wisecracking Reagan said: “You aren’t going to throw me over the couch are you?” He lived in Washington.
