“I’ve been glued to the TV,” said Mary Frances Krull, who with her husband, Harold, attended the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, as well as Reagan’s inauguration.

She recalled the inauguration.

“It was a dreary day and Reagan came out and then the sun came out and the crows in trees started cawing,” she said. “I felt like I was sitting out in Kansas in the middle of a corn field.”

And she recalled the events later that day.

“When the President and Nancy came where we were, everybody pushed to get near the dance floor,” she said. “I thought I would faint. But I knew if I did I couldn’t fall. We were just crowded in there. One woman did faint and there was no place for her to fall.”

Mary Frances Krull and Harold Krull did leave home Friday to run some errands, but they first set their VCR to record Reagan’s funeral.

From her trips, Krull has amassed a collection of political souvenirs. Bulging shoeboxes, their lids secured with rubber bands, hold dozens of political buttons and other memorabilia.

Also included are the identification tags she wore during the 1980 convention.

Mary Frances, who grew up east of Tonganoxie, moved to Lawrence in about 1940. A year later she married Harold Krull, who worked for years at the Lawrence Journal-World. Twenty-one years ago, the couple moved to Tonganoxie.

The Krulls followed Reagan’s presidency closely.

“President Reagan was just a good person,” Mary Frances said. “I know some Democrats wouldn’t agree with me, but I think he was just a good person and he was good for the country.”