Noonan: Sinatra told Reagan his Challenger speech worked

Sometimes you never know if a speech really works, even one that becomes a classic.

Sometimes you need someone like Frank Sinatra to tell you.

Speechwriter Peggy Noonan tells the Sirius XM POTUS channel that President Ronald Reagan had that experience with his now-famous 1986 speech after the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger -- an effort he first thought did not succeed.

"He looked dashed," Noonan said. "He looked upset."

But the next morning, Noonan told POTUS host Julie Mason, Reagan called her in a better mood to say he had  changed his mind about the speech.

"He said, 'there was a heckuva lot of response,' " Noonan said. "And then he said: 'And Frank Sinatra called me ... and I gotta tell you, Frank Sinatra didn't call after every speech!'"

Noonan's story about Sinatra -- who is enjoying a revival in this centennial year of his  birth -- is part of the latest interview in SiriusXM’s "Leading Ladies" series.

The Noonan program airs Friday at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. ET on POTUS, SiriusXM Channel 124.

Noonan, whose new anthology of her writings is called The Time of Our Lives, authored that speech of Jan. 28, 1986, including this still-remembered ending:

"The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.' "