Fitzwater, Speakes's successor, called it a "damn outrage" and complained that they unfairly called into question the veracity of other presidential statements. Speakes said "I was representing his thought if not his words", but also apologized to Reagan, saying he had "provided fodder for those who would aim the cannons of criticism at the President I served loyally for 6 years." Speakes left a job at Merrill Lynch which he had held for a short time as a result of the controversy. Controversy Speakes's comments on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s have been criticized. During press briefings over the course of several years, reporter Lester Kinsolving asked Speakes what response, if any, the administration had to the developing crisis. On most of these occasions, Speakes and the White House press corps responded with homophobic jokes, laughter, and disinterest, responses that have been pointed to as symbols of the Reagan administration's slow response to the epidemic. Personal life Speakes was married to the former Laura Christine Crawford (born 1945), whom he met in high school. The two later divorced and had three children. Death Speakes died in Cleveland, Mississippi, on January 10, 2014, at the age of 74, of Alzheimer's disease. His body was interred a few hours after his death at North Cleveland Cemetery. Books Larry Speakes: Speaking Out'' (New York: Avon Books, 1989) paperback References External links Announcement on Speakes receiving the Presidential Citizens Medal The Presidency Project - Appointment of Larry M. Speakes as Deputy Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Press Secretary to the President, June 17, 1981 1939 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American memoirists American male journalists Burials in Mississippi Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Ford administration personnel Journalists from Mississippi Mississippi Democrats Mississippi Republicans Neurological disease deaths in Mississippi Nixon administration personnel People from Bolivar County, Mississippi People from Cleveland, Mississippi Presidential Citizens Medal recipients Reagan administration personnel University of Mississippi alumni White House Press Secretaries Writers from Mississippi