Dot Perham-Whittier was in the eighth grade when she wrote Ronald Reagan for an autograph. She wasn’t looking for Reagan’s, though.

Instead of the signature of the man who would become the leader of the free world, she wanted the mark of the woman who made her laugh and feel better about herself: Lucille Ball.

“I wasn’t a popular girl in school,” said Perham-Whitter. She was 14, then. It was 1976.

Ball’s show was rerun on TV every day. Her pratfalls and silly situations showed a woman doing her best. It made the awkward young girl feel better.

“I collected everything I could on Lucille Ball,” said Perham-Whitter. She cut pictures and stories out of magazines. And she tried to get the actress’s autograph.

She sent several letters to Ball and received an impersonal, stamped signature in return. It wasn’t the same.

Then, she saw Reagan on the Merv Griffin Show. The talk show featured the former California governor’s movie career and friends. One of the guests, via telephone, was the teenager’s hero.

Reagan and Ball were next-door neighbors, she learned. So the girl wrote to Reagan.

He didn’t reply. However, a few weeks later, a gray envelope appeared at Dot’s Auburn home. In the corner it read, “Lucille Ball Productions.”

Inside was a glossy black and white photo of the actress. A handwritten message was inscribed in blue marker across one corner. It read:

“For Dorothy, with my thanks and gratitude, love Lucy.”

Dottie returned to Webster School that afternoon to show her teacher. She framed it and displayed it proudly in her room.

As the years went by, however, it became her story about the president.

“I imagined him reaching over his back fence and handing her my letter,” said Perham-Whittier, who now works in Lewiston City Hall as the city’s community relations coordinator. “He was a busy man, but he found the time.”

Today, she wishes she had asked him for his autograph, too.

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