The first president Richard Todd voted for was Ronald Reagan.

It was 1980, the year Todd graduated from Lawrence High School, and he decided Reagan could run the nation better than President Carter had the previous four years.

“At my age, I have a hard time putting him into historical perspective, but I think from what I understand he was probably in the top three as far getting done what needed to be done,” said Todd, 41.

Like many Americans, Todd is finding it hard to turn on the television or pick up a newspaper without seeing coverage of Reagan’s death and funeral.

“I don’t think that’s out of line for any president,” said Todd, treasurer of the Douglas County Republican Party.

But as the coast-to-coast coverage continued Wednesday, Lawrence residents seemed to be reflecting more on Reagan’s legacy than spending a lot of time absorbing television or other media coverage of events leading to Friday’s funeral in Washington, D.C.

“I’m reacting to it from the standpoint of ‘Oh, this is the first president I remember,'” said Lara Kantack, 22, of Lawrence. “It’s kind of sad. But it was going to have to happen sometime … We’ve all known that he’s had Alzheimer’s. He was 93.”

And, she added, “I’m definitely not glued to the television.”

Still, she and Michael Allen, 28, have seen a lot of the coverage since Reagan died Saturday at 93.

“Ronald Reagan was a great president, probably one of the better presidents in the past 50 years that we’ve had, but I don’t think that his death was the watershed event that JFK’s death was,” said Allen, of Lawrence. “He (Reagan) managed to get a lot accomplished, like it or not.”

Mourners line the road as the hearse carrying former President Ronald Reagan's casket passes en route to Point Mugu, Calif.

Allen said he missed the speech-making skills that earned Reagan the moniker “great communicator.”

“I just remember that he was on TV a lot,” Allen said. “That’s going to look stupid, but he was always really good at communicating with the people. I always felt reassured, I guess, when he was on TV.”

Erik Peltzman, 31, a Lawrence resident and a teacher at Eudora High School, won’t be watching the funeral and hasn’t paid much attention to this week’s coverage.

“I remember my dad being really upset that Carter didn’t win,” Peltzman said. “He (Reagan) did horrible things for the environment, but he seems to take a lot of credit for ending the Cold War, which possibly he did.”

Matt Miksch, 25, is barely old enough to remember when Reagan was president; he was born the year before Reagan was elected.

Still, Miksch said he might watch the funeral — if work doesn’t interfere.

“I was alive when he was president, but he was gone (out of office) when I was 9. When you’re 9 years old, you don’t really care,” Miksch said.

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Sandra Liechti, 57, can remember several presidents in her lifetime. As for Reagan, well, he probably would have made a nice neighbor.

“I thought he was a nice guy,” said Liechti, of Lawrence. “I think it would be nice to live next door to him, but I didn’t agree with everything he did. Even if you didn’t agree with him, he had a way about him that you liked.”

For others, like Brandon Clark, the news of Reagan’s death was slow getting through.

“He died?” the 24-year-old Lawrence man said. “I hadn’t heard that yet.”