For the past year, Julia Reagan’s smiling face has looked out from billboards across the country — a tribute from her husband, William Reagan, founder of Reagan Outdoor Advertising, following the death of the company’s longtime matriarch.
Reagan Outdoor Advertising will take down Julia Reagan’s memorial billboards by July 15, with plans to bring them back annually two weeks before Memorial Day.
For the past year, Julia Reagan’s smiling face has looked out from billboards across the country — a tribute from her husband, William Reagan, founder of Reagan Outdoor Advertising, following the death of the company’s longtime matriarch.
Now, as the anniversary of Julia’s death passed on Thursday, the company is preparing to take the billboards down.
Reagan said the company will begin phasing the billboards out next week, taking down about 25% at a time until all are removed by July 15. He described the decision as a natural transition as the one-year memorial comes to a close.
“The one on our building will be the last one to come down,” Reagan said. “It’s going to be hard for me, because it has helped me. Seeing them perks me up.”
But the tribute isn’t over. The billboards will return each year, going back up two weeks before Memorial Day and staying up for 30 days to honor Julia’s memory as an annual tradition, Reagan said.
Originally intended as a quiet tribute, the billboards quickly gained traction online sparking memes, social media buzz and public fascination.
“It was an unexpected consequence that I was not unhappy about, but it was never intended to be that,” Reagan said. “It was just to memorialize her and honor her.”
Over the past year, Julia’s billboards became fodder for spirited debate, inspired Halloween costumes and at least one tattoo, and appeared in drag queen Trixie Mattel’s “Solid Pink Disco: Blonde Edition” tour.
Bryant Heath, an engineer and columnist who documents unusual Salt Lake City sites on Instagram, has tracked the phenomenon closely. He said over text that he has collected at least 98 photos of the Julia Reagan billboards, either taken himself or submitted by followers, for a personal project documenting the tribute before it disappears.
(Bryant Heath) A 64-photo collage of Julia Reagan billboards, assembled by engineer and columnist Bryant Heath, who documents Salt Lake City’s quirks on Instagram. Heath is racing to capture the billboards before they are taken down, using photos he’s taken himself, submitted from followers or screenshots from Google Street View.
Cyclists have contacted him asking for billboard locations in the city and nearby suburbs, Heath said. They are hoping to map out a bike route to visit each one before they are taken down.
“My personal favorite of her billboards is just east of Interstate 15 on 600 North,” Heath wrote. “You can see the capitol clearly and the rolling verdant Wasatch Mountain foothills. Just a very pristine and scenic spot for our beloved Julia.”
Reagan said his company originally installed 300 billboards featuring Julia across all seven states where it operates: Utah, Texas, Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana and Tennessee. Heath said he has received images from at least five of those states.
Each year, Reagan plans to bring back 300 billboards. If one space is sold, he will move Julia’s image to another location to keep the tribute consistent, he said.
Photos of the billboards from across the country show them in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes, but all feature the same constants: Julia Reagan’s face, her name and a rotating set of messages. Some read, “Cherished In Life, Honored In Memory,” or “Missed Every Day, Remembered Every Moment.” Others say “Loved Beyond Words, Missed Beyond Measure,” or simply, “We Will Miss You.”
Reagan said he cannot be certain how Julia would feel about the sudden fame and unexpected public attention, but he believes she would be touched.
“She’s shy, so she’d have the reaction of a shy person to it, but certainly everyone enjoys being thought well of and being admired,” Reagan said. “And she worked very hard all of her life on social issues. She would be flattered more so than happy.”
This wasn’t the first time Reagan had used billboards to honor his wife. He had put some up on her birthday in years past, but this tribute was the first to spark widespread public response.
Still, he said, it felt fitting.
When the couple met, Reagan was 20 years old, and Julia was 23. He had recently started the billboard company, which then had about 20 signs. Today, Reagan Outdoor Advertising operates about 9,000 signs, he said.
Through all the ups and downs of building the business, Reagan said Julia was by his side every step of the way.
“It just had been part of our whole life together,” he said.
The two met by chance. Reagan ended up at a Jewish party just before Hanukkah because his friend needed a ride.
That night, he saw Julia across the room.
“I looked around the room, and I saw this lady standing there who was the most attractive lady in the room,” Reagan recalled. “And so I went over and asked her to dance.”
After five dates over three weeks, the two eloped on Dec. 26, 1965, he said.
Julia Reagan died at age 81 on June 12, 2024, according to her obituary. She was born in 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland, and later attended Olympus High School and Mills College before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Utah.
William Reagan filed a wrongful death lawsuit in February against the University of Utah’s hospitals and clinics, alleging medical negligence led to Julia Reagan’s death. The university filed a motion to dismiss the case in April. The lawsuit is still pending.
Throughout their life together, Julia and William shared a love for travel and dancing. They were longtime members of Salt Lake’s Third Saturday Night Dance Club and rarely missed a night, he said.
“We had this promise to ourselves that wherever we went, we would always try to dance at least once,” Reagan said.
The billboards, he said, are his way of keeping Julia’s memory alive and ensuring she’s never forgotten.
“It wasn’t for people that knew Julia,” he said. “Because most people didn’t know her. It was just to honor Julia.”