Ashikaga Takauji, Japanese shogun
Etienne Marcel, French textile merchant/reformer/boer leader
Albert II, Duke of Austria
Isabella, Queen of England
Ashikaga Takauji, Japanese shogun
Etienne Marcel, French textile merchant/reformer/boer leader
Albert II, Duke of Austria
Isabella, Queen of England
Tim Robbins, 65
Flea, 61
Kellie Martin, 48
John Mayer, 46
Caterina Scorsone, 43
Barry Corbin, 83
C. F. Turner, 80
Bob Weir, 76
David Zucker, 76
Martha Smith, 71
Andy Kindler, 67
Gary Kemp, 64
Bob Mould, 63
Randy Vasquez, 62
Christian Stolte, 61
Terri J. Vaughn, 54
Wendy Wilson, 54
B-Rock, 52
Chad Gray, 52
Paul Sparks, 52
Jeremy Jackson, 42
Brea Grant, 42
Kyler Pettis, 31
Joshua Hoffman, 24
Noah Webster (October 16, 1758-May 28, 1843)
Oscar Wilde (October 16, 1854-November 30, 1900)
Eugene O'Neill (October 16, 1888-November 27, 1953)
Angela Lansbury (October 16, 1925-October 11, 2022)
Suzanne Somers (October 1946-October 15, 2023)
King Hugh IV of Cyprus
Ivan II, Great Ruler of Moscow/Vladimir
Gregorius Palamas, Byzantine mystic/archbishop saint
Emeril Lagasse, 64
Ginuwine, 53
Keyshia Cole, 42
Bailee Madison, 24
Barry Maguire, 88
Linda Lavin, 86
Victor Banerjee, 77
Richard Carpenter, 77
Tito Jackson, 70
Larry Miller, 70
Jere Burns, 69
Marc Reznicek, 61
Eric Benet, 57
Vanessa Marcil, 55
Paige Davis, 54
Dominic West, 54
Kimberly Schlapman, 54
Jaci Velazquez, 44
Brandon Jay McLaren, 43
Vincent Martella, 31
Virgil (October 15, 70-September 21, 19 B.C.)
Robert Herrick (baptized August 24, 1591-October 15, 1674)
Friedrich Nietzsche (October 15, 1844-August 25, 1900)
Mario Puzo (October 15, 1920-July 2, 1999)
Lee Iacocca (October 15, 1924-July 2, 2019)
Penny Marshall (October 15, 1943-December 17, 2018)
Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, English military leader
Joan I, Countess of Auvergne, Queen of France
Usher Raymond, 45
Skyler Shaye, 37
Jay Pharoah, 36
Rowan Blanchard, 22
Carroll Ballard, 86
Melba Montgomery, 86
Cliff Richard, 83
Justin Hayward, 77
Greg Evigan, 70
Thomas Dolby, 65
Lori Petty, 60
Steve Coogan, 58
Karyn White, 58
Edward Kerr, 57
John Seda, 53
Doug Virden, 53
Natalie Maines, 49
Shernay Lewis, 48
Stephen Hill, 47
Stacy Keibler, 44
Ben Wishaw, 43
Max Thieriot, 35
Ralph Lauren, 84
William Penn (October 24 [October 14], 1644-August 10 [July 30], 1718)
Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower, 34th U. S. President (October 14, 1890-March 38, 1969)
Sir Roger Moore (October 14, 1927-May 23, 2017)
Harry Anderson (October 14, 1952-April 16, 2018)
Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, richest peer in England
Phillippe de Vitry, French composer/poet
John Tauler, German mystic
Philip I, Duke of Burgundy
Paul Simon, 82
Sammy Hagar, 76
Marie Osmond, 64
Kate Walsh, 56
Sacha Baron Cohen, 52
Ashanti, 43
Shirley Caesar, 86
Robert Lumm, 79
Lacy J. Dalton, 77
Desmond Wilson, 75
John Ford Foley, 75
Beverly Johnson, 71
John Lone, 71
Chris Carter, 67
Cherrelle, 64
Joey Belladonna, 63
T'Keyah Crystal Keymah, 61
John Wiggins, 61
Christopher Judge, 59
Matt Walsh, 59
Reginald Ballard, 58
Jeff Allen, 55
Tisha Campbell-Martin, 55
Rhett Akins, 54
Cady McClain, 54
Billy Bush, 52
Jan Van Sichem, Jr., 51
Brandon Casey, 48
Brian Casey, 48
Kiele Sanchez, 47
Lumidee, 43
on Micah Sumrall, 43
Caleb McLaughlin, 22
Jerry Rice, 61
Nancy Kerrigan, 54
Nipsey Russell (September 15, 1918-October 2, 2005)
Margaret Thatcher (October 13, 1925-April 8, 2013)
Kelly Preston (October 13, 1962-July 12, 2020)
Just Say No
The First Lady
launched the "Just Say No"
drug awareness campaign in 1982, which was her primary project and major
initiative as First Lady. Reagan
first became aware of the need to educate young people about drugs during a
1980 campaign stop in Daytop Village, New York. She remarked in 1981 that "Understanding what drugs can do to
your children, understanding peer pressure and understanding why they turn to
drugs is ... the first step in solving the problem." Her campaign
focused on drug education and informing the youth of the danger of drug abuse.
In 1982, Reagan was asked by a schoolgirl what to do when
offered drugs; Reagan responded: "Just
say no." The phrase proliferated in the popular culture of the 1980s and was eventually adopted as the name of club organizations and school
anti-drug programs. Reagan became actively involved by traveling more than
250,000 miles (400,000 km) throughout the United States and several nations,
visiting drug abuse prevention programs and drug rehabilitation centers. She
also appeared on television talk shows, recorded public service announcements,
and wrote guest articles. She appeared in an episode of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes to underscore support
for the "Just Say No"
campaign, and in a rock music video, "Stop
the Madness" (1985).
In 1985, Reagan expanded the campaign to an international
level by inviting the First Ladies
of various nations to the White House
for a conference on drug abuse. On October 27, 1986, President Reagan signed a drug enforcement bill into law, which
granted $1.7 billion in funding to fight the perceived crisis and ensured a
mandatory minimum penalty for drug offenses. Although the bill was criticized,
Reagan considered it a personal victory. In 1988, she became the first active
first lady invited to address the United
Nations General Assembly, where she spoke on international drug interdiction
and trafficking laws.
Critics of Reagan's efforts questioned their purpose, labeled
Reagan's approach to promoting drug awareness as simplistic, and argued that
the program did not give adequate attention to various social issues associated
with increased rates of drug use, including unemployment, poverty, and family
dissolution.
Her husband's
protector
Reagan assumed the role of unofficial "protector" for her husband after the attempted assassination
of him in 1981. On March 30 of that year, President
Reagan and three others were shot by the attempted assassin 25-year-old John Hinckley, Jr as they left the Washington Hilton Hotel. Nancy was
alerted and arrived at George Washington
University Hospital, where the President was hospitalized. She recalled
having seen "emergency rooms before,
but I had never seen one like this – with my husband in it." She was
escorted into a waiting room, and when granted access to see her husband, he
quipped to her, "Honey, I forgot to
duck", borrowing the defeated boxer Jack Dempsey's jest to his wife.
An early example of the First
Lady's protective nature occurred when Senator
Strom Thurmond entered the President's hospital room that day in March,
passing the Secret Service detail by
claiming he was the President's "close
friend", presumably to acquire media attention. Nancy was outraged and
demanded that he leave. While the President recuperated in the hospital, the First Lady slept with one of his shirts
to be comforted by the scent. When Ronald
Reagan was released from the hospital on April 12, she escorted him back to
the White House.
Press accounts framed Reagan as her husband's "chief protector", an
extension of their general initial framing of her as a helpmate and a Cold War domestic ideal. As it
happened, the day after her husband was shot, she fell off a chair while trying
to take down a picture to bring to him in the hospital; she suffered several
broken ribs but was determined to not reveal it publicly.
Astrological consultations
During the Reagan administration, Nancy Reagan consulted a San Francisco astrologer, Joan Quigley, who provided advice on
which days and times would be optimal for the president's safety and success.
Quigley began her work at the White
House after the assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981. Nancy
Reagan was told by Merv Griffin
that Quigley had predicted that day would be dangerous for President Reagan, causing her to become a regular astrological
consultant for the administration. Quigley previously worked on the Reagan
campaign before serving as their astrological consultant. She volunteered for
their campaign in 1980, as she was impressed by his astrological chart. Private
lines were set up in the White House
and Camp David to assist in phone
calls between Nancy Reagan and Joan Quigley, which occurred multiple
times a day, and she was paid $3,000 a month for her work.
White House Chief of
Staff Donald Regan grew frustrated with this regimen, which created
friction between him and the First Lady.
This friction escalated with the revelation of the Iran–Contra Affair, an administration scandal, in which the First Lady felt Regan was damaging the
president. She thought he should resign, and expressed this to her husband,
although he did not share her view. Regan wanted President Reagan to address the Iran-Contra matter in early 1987 using a press conference,
though the First Lady refused to
allow her husband to overexert himself due to recent prostate surgery and
astrological warnings. She became so angry with Regan that he hung up on her
during a 1987 telephone conversation. According to the recollections of ABC
News correspondent Sam Donaldson, when
the President heard of this treatment, he demanded—and eventually
received—Regan's resignation. Vice
President George H. W. Bush is also reported to have suggested to her to
have Regan fired.
In his 1988 memoir, For
the Record: From Wall Street to Washington, Regan wrote the following about
Nancy Reagan's consultations with an
astrologer:
Virtually every major
move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in
San Francisco [Quigley] who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets
were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.
Donald Regan's memoir went on to cause political discourse,
as well as scrutiny of the astrological community, as he exposed the "most closely guarded secret" of
the Reagan administration. Although he did not know Quigley's name at the time,
he wrote extensively on her role in the White House. Regan further claimed that
Quigley selected the date of the 1985 Geneva
Summit. For her part, Quigley stated in 1998 that she had "'absolutely nothing'" to do
with arranging the summit and added that others were "'overemphasizing'" her role; however, in 1990, she
released a book in which she asserted that she was "in charge" of the President's scheduling during the
Reagan administration.
Reagan acknowledged in her memoirs that she altered the
President's schedule without his knowledge based on astrological advice, but
argues that "no political decision
was ever based [on astrology]". She added, "Astrology was simply one of the ways I coped with the fear I felt
after my husband almost died ... Was astrology one of the reasons I don't really believe it was, but I don't
really believe it wasn't."
Influence in the
White House
Nancy Reagan
wielded a powerful influence over President
Reagan. In her memoirs, Reagan stated, "I
felt panicky every time [Ronald Reagan]
left the White House". Following
the assassination attempt, she strictly controlled access to the president;
occasionally, she even attempted to influence her husband's decision-making.
Beginning in 1985, she strongly encouraged her husband to
hold "summit" conferences
with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail
Gorbachev and suggested they form a personal relationship beforehand. Both
Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev developed a productive relationship through their summit negotiations. The
relationship between Nancy Reagan
and Raisa Gorbacheva was anything
but the friendly, diplomatic one between their husbands; Reagan found
Gorbacheva hard to converse with and their relationship was described as "frosty". The two women
usually had tea and discussed the differences between the USSR and the United
States. Visiting the United States for the first time in 1987, Gorbacheva irked
Reagan with lectures on subjects ranging from architecture to socialism,
reportedly prompting the American president's wife to quip, "Who does that dame think she is?"
Press framing of Reagan changed from that of just a helpmate
and protector to someone with hidden power. As the image of her as a political
interloper grew, she sought to explicitly deny that she was the power behind
the throne. At the end of her time as First Lady, however, she said that her
husband had not been well-served by his staff. She acknowledged her role in
reaction in influencing him on personnel decisions, saying "In no way do I apologize for it." She wrote in her memoirs,
"I don't think I was as bad, or as
extreme in my power or my weakness, as I was depicted," but went on, "However the First Lady
fits in, she has a unique and important role to play in looking after her
husband. And it's only natural that she'll let him know what she thinks. I
always did that for Ronnie, and I always will."
Breast cancer
In October 1987, a mammogram detected a lesion in Reagan's
left breast and she was subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer. She chose to
undergo a mastectomy rather than a lumpectomy, and the breast was removed on
October 17, 1987. Ten days after the operation, her 99-year-old mother, Edith Luckett Davis, died in Phoenix,
Arizona, leading Reagan to dub the period "a
terrible month".
After the surgery, more women across the country had
mammograms, which exemplified the influence that the First Lady possessed.
Later life
Though Reagan was a controversial First Lady, 56 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of her
when her husband left office on January 20, 1989, with 18 percent having an
unfavorable opinion, and the balance of not giving an opinion. Compared to fellow First Ladies when their husbands left
office, Reagan's approval was higher than those of Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton, and Melania Trump. However, she was less popular than Barbara Bush and Michelle Obama, and her disapproval rating was double that of
Carter's.
Upon leaving the White
House, the couple returned to California, where wealthy friends purchased
them a home at 668 St. Cloud Road in the wealthy East Gate Old Bel Air
neighborhood of Bel Air, Los Angeles, dividing their time between Bel Air and
the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara,
California. Ronald and Nancy regularly attended the Bel Air Church as well. After leaving Washington, Reagan made numerous
public appearances, many on behalf of her husband. She continued to reside at
the Bel Air home, where she lived with her husband until he died on June 5,
2004.
Early post–White
House activities
In late 1989, the former First Lady established the Nancy
Reagan Foundation, which aimed to continue to educate people about the dangers
of substance abuse. The Foundation teamed with the BEST Foundation for a Drug-Free Tomorrow in 1994 and developed the
Nancy Reagan Afterschool Program.
She continued to travel around the United States, speaking out against drug and
alcohol abuse.
Ronnie's long journey
has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him. — Nancy Reagan (May 2004)
Her memoirs, My Turn:
The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan (1989), are an account of her life in the White House, commenting openly about
her influence within the Reagan administration, and discussing the myths and
controversies that surrounded the couple. In 1991, the author Kitty Kelley wrote an unauthorized and
largely uncited biography about Reagan, repeating accounts of a poor
relationship with her children, and introducing rumors of alleged sexual
relations with singer Frank Sinatra.
A wide range of sources commented that Kelley's largely unsupported claims are
most likely false.
In 1989, the IRS
(Internal Revenue Service) began investigating the Reagans over allegations
they owed additional tax on the gifts and loans of high-fashion clothes and jewelry
to the First Lady during their time
in the White House (recipients
benefiting from the display of such items recognize taxable income even if they
are returned). In 1992, the IRS determined the Reagans had failed to include
some $3 million worth of fashion items between 1983 and 1988 on their tax returns;
they were billed for a large amount of back taxes and interest, which was
subsequently paid.
After President
Reagan revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in
1994, she made herself his primary caregiver and became actively involved with
the National Alzheimer's Association
and its affiliate, the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute in Chicago,
Illinois.
In April 1997, Nancy
Reagan joined President Bill Clinton
and former Presidents Ford and Bush in signing the Summit Declaration of Commitment in
advocating for participation by private citizens in solving domestic issues
within the United States.
Nancy Reagan was
awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President George W. Bush on July 9, 2002. President Reagan received his own Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 1993. Reagan and her
husband were jointly awarded the Congressional
Gold Medal on May 16, 2002, at the United
States Capitol building, and were only the third president and First Lady to receive it; she accepted
the medal on behalf of both of them.
Funeral for President
Reagan
Ronald Reagan
died in their Bel Air home on June 5, 2004. During the seven-day state funeral,
Nancy, accompanied by her children and military escort, led the nation in
mourning. She kept a strong composure, traveling from her home to the Reagan Library for a memorial service,
then to Washington, D.C., where her husband's body lay in state for 34 hours
before a national funeral service in the Washington
National Cathedral. She returned to the library in Simi Valley for a sunset
memorial service and interment, where, overcome with emotion, she lost her
composure and cried in public for the first time during the week. After
receiving the folded flag, she kissed the casket and mouthed "I love you" before leaving.
During the week, CNN journalist Wolf
Blitzer said, "She's a very,
very strong woman, even though she looks frail."
She had directed the detailed planning of the funeral, which
included scheduling all the major events and asking former President George H. W. Bush, as well as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Soviet
Union Leader Mikhail Gorbachev,
and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney to speak during the National
Cathedral Service. She paid very close attention to the details, something
she had always done in her husband's life. Betsy
Bloomingdale, one of Reagan's closest friends, stated, "She looks a little frail. But she is very strong inside. She is.
She has the strength. She is doing her last thing for Ronnie. And she is going
to get it right." The funeral marked her first major public appearance
since she delivered a speech to the 1996
Republican National Convention on her husband's behalf.
The funeral had a great impact on her public image.
Following substantial criticism during her tenure as First Lady, she was seen somewhat as a national heroine, praised by
many for supporting and caring for her husband while he suffered from Alzheimer's
disease. U.S. News & World Report
opined, "After a decade in the
shadows, a different, softer Nancy
Reagan emerged."
Widowhood
Following her husband's death, Reagan remained active in
politics, particularly relating to stem cell research. Beginning in 2004, she
favored what many consider to be the Democratic
Party's position, and urged President
George W. Bush to support federally funded embryonic stem cell research, in
the hope that this science could lead to a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
Although she failed to change the president's position, she did support his campaign
for a second term.
In 2005, Reagan was honored at a gala dinner at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington,
D.C., where guests included Dick Cheney,
Harry Reid, and Condoleezza Rice.
In 2007, she attended the national funeral service for Gerald Ford at the Washington National Cathedral. Reagan hosted two 2008 Republican
presidential debates at the Reagan
Presidential Library, the first in May 2007 and the second in January 2008.
On March 25, she formally endorsed Senator
John McCain, then the presumptive Republican
Party nominee for president, but McCain would go on to lose the election to
Barack Obama.
Reagan attended the funeral of Lady Bird Johnson in Austin, Texas, on July 14, 2007, and three
days later accepted the highest Polish distinction, the Order of the White Eagle, on behalf of Ronald Reagan at the Reagan
Library. The Reagan Library
opened the temporary exhibit "Nancy
Reagan: A First Lady's Style", which displayed over eighty designer
dresses belonging to her.
Reagan's health and well-being became a prominent concern in
2008. In February, she suffered a fall at her Bel Air home and was taken to Saint John's Health Center in Santa
Monica, California. Doctors reported that she did not break her hip as feared,
and she was released from the hospital two days later. News commentators noted
that Reagan's step had slowed significantly, as the following month she walked
in very slow strides with John McCain.
In October 2008, Reagan was admitted to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after falling at home. Doctors
determined that the 87-year-old had fractured her pelvis and sacrum, and could
recuperate at home with a regimen of physical therapy. As a result of her
mishap, medical articles were published containing information on how to
prevent falls. In January 2009, Reagan was said to be "improving every day and starting to get out more and more".
In March 2009, she praised President Barack Obama for reversing the ban on federally funded embryonic
stem cell research. She traveled to Washington, D.C. in June 2009 to unveil a
statue of her late husband in the CapitolRotundaa. She was also on hand as President Obama signed the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act,
and lunched privately with Michelle
Obama. Reagan revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair that Michelle
Obama had telephoned her for advice on living and entertaining in the White House. Following the death of Senator Ted Kennedy in August 2009, she
said she was "terribly saddened ...
Given our political differences, people are sometimes surprised how close
Ronnie and I have been to the Kennedy family ... I will miss him." She
attended the funeral of Betty Ford
in Rancho Mirage, California, on July 12, 2011.
Reagan hosted a 2012 Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Presidential Library on
September 7, 2011. She suffered a fall in March 2012. Two months later, she
endured several broken ribs, which prevented her from attending a speech given
by Paul Ryan in the Reagan Presidential Library in May
2012. She endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on May 31, 2012, explaining that her husband would have
liked Romney's business background and what she called "strong principles". Following the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
in April 2013, she stated, "The
world has lost a true champion of freedom and democracy ... Ronnie and I knew
her as a dear and trusted friend, and I will miss her."
Death and funeral
On March 6, 2016, Nancy
Reagan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Los Angeles at the
age of 94. On March 7, President Barack
Obama issued a presidential proclamation ordering the flag of the United
States to be flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of Reagan's interment.
Her funeral was held on March 11 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
Representatives from ten first families were in attendance, including former
president George W. Bush and First Ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush,
Hillary Clinton, and Rosalynn
Carter. The other representatives were presidential children Steven Ford, Tricia Nixon Cox, Luci Baines
Johnson, and Caroline Kennedy,
and presidential grandchild Anne
Eisenhower Flottl.
Other prominent individuals in attendance included
California governor Jerry Brown and
former governors Arnold Schwarzenegger
and Pete Wilson, then-former HouseSpeakerr Nancy Pelosi, and former
House speaker Newt Gingrich, and
former members of the Reagan administration, including George P. Shultz and Edwin
Meese. A sizable contingent from the Hollywood entertainment industry
attended as well, including Mr. T, Maria
Shriver (Schwarzenegger's then-wife), Wayne
Newton, Johnny Mathis, Anjelica Huston, John Stamos, Tom Selleck, Bo Derek,
and Melissa Rivers. In all, there
were some 1,000 guests.
Eulogies were given by former prime minister of Canada Brian Mulroney, former secretary of
state James Baker, Diane Sawyer, Tom
Brokaw, and her children Patti Davis
and Ron Reagan. After the funeral, Nancy Reagan was interred next to her
husband.
Historical
assessments
Since 1982 Siena
College Research Institute has conducted occasional surveys asking
historians to assess American First Ladies
according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their
background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments,
integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the
president. In terms of cumulative assessment Reagan has been ranked:
36th-best of 37 in 1993
28th-best of 38 in 2003
15th-best of 38 in 2008
15th-best of 39 in 2014
In the 1993 Sienna
Research Institute survey, the first conducted after Reagan left the White House, Reagan was assessed very
poorly by historians, ranking the second-worst, with only Mary Todd Lincoln being given a worse assessment. Reagan was ranked
the lowest in half of the criteria (background, value to the country,
intelligence, courage, and integrity). The regard for Reagan has improved in
subsequent iterations of the survey. In the 2008 Siena Research Institute survey, Reagan was ranked the
4th-highest in value to the president but was ranked the lowest in integrity.
In the 2003 survey, Reagan ranked the 5th-highest in value to the president. In
the 2014 survey, Reagan and her husband were ranked the 16th-highest out of 39 First Couples in terms of being a "power couple". In the 2014
survey, historians ranked Reagan among 20th and 21st-century American first
ladies as being the 5th greatest in terms of being a "political asset" and the 5th greatest in terms of being a strong
public communicator.
Reagan and her husband have each posthumously experienced
continued criticism for having, during their time in the White House, spent years publicly ignoring the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which began during her husband's presidency. The
epidemic had initially predominantly impacted the male homosexual community.
Reagan's great extended public silence on this matter has been contrasted with
her coinciding vocalness against drug use. Reagan's extended failure to give
significant public acknowledgment of this epidemic has been seen as one of the
greatest detractions in her retrospective public regard. However, there has
been reporting to suggest that, privately, Reagan did unsuccessfully urge her
husband's administration to address the epidemic.
Awards and honors
As noted earlier, Nancy
Reagan was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 2002 and the Congressional
Gold Medal, in the same year. In 1989, she received the Council of Fashion Designers of Lifetime Achievement Award.
As First Lady, Nancy
Reagan received an Honorary
Doctorate of Laws degree from
Pepperdine University in 1983. Later, she received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Eureka College in
Illinois, her husband's alma mater, in 2009.
Filmography
The Crippler (1940)
(Short)
Portrait of Jennie
(1948)
The Doctor and the
Girl (1949)
East Side, West Side
(1949)
Shadow on the Wall
(1950)
The Next Voice You
Hear... (1950)
Night into Morning
(1951)
It's a Big Country
(1951)
Talk About a Stranger
(1952)
Shadow in the Sky
(1952)
Donovan's Brain (1953)
The Dark Wave (1956)
(Short)
Hellcats of the Navy
(1957)
Crash Landing (1958)
As Nancy Davis,
she also made several television appearances from 1953 to 1962, as a guest
star in dramatic shows or installments of anthology series. These included Ford Television Theater (her first
appearance with Ronald Reagan came
during a 1953 episode titled "First
Born"), Schlitz Playhouse of
Stars, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater (appearing with Ronald Reagan in the 1961 episode "The Long Shadow"), Wagon
Train, The Tall Man, and General
Electric Theater (hosted by Ronald
Reagan).
Nancy Davis Reagan (/ˈreɪɡən/; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress and the First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, as the second wife of President Ronald Reagan.
Reagan was born in New York City. After her parents
separated, she lived in Maryland with an aunt and uncle for six years. When her
mother remarried in 1929, she moved to Chicago and later was adopted by her
mother's second husband. As Nancy Davis,
she was a Hollywood actress in the 1940s and 1950s, starring in films such as The Next Voice You Hear..., Night into Morning, and Donovan's Brain. In 1952, she married Ronald Reagan, who was then president
of the Screen Actors Guild. He had
two children from his previous marriage to Jane Wyman and he and Nancy had two
children together. Nancy Reagan was the First
Lady of California when her husband was governor from 1967 to 1975, and she
began to work with the Foster
Grandparents Program.
Reagan became First
Lady of the United States in January 1981, following her husband's victory
in the 1980 presidential election. Early in his first term, she was criticized
largely due to her decisions both to replace the White House China, which had
been paid for by private donations and to accept free clothing from fashion
designers. She championed causes opposed to recreational drug use when she
founded the "Just Say No" drug
awareness campaign, which was considered her major initiative as First Lady.
More discussion of her role ensued following a 1988 revelation that she had
consulted an astrologer to assist in planning the president's schedule after
the attempted assassination of her husband in 1981. She generally had a strong
influence on her husband and played a role in a few of his personnel and
diplomatic decisions.
The couple returned to their home in Bel Air, Los Angeles,
California, after Reagan's time in office. Nancy devoted most of her time to
caring for her husband, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994,
until his death at the age of 93 on June 5, 2004. Reagan remained active within
the Reagan Library and in politics, particularly in support of embryonic stem
cell research, until her death from congestive heart failure at age 94 in 2016.
Early life and
education
Anne Frances Robbins
was born on July 6, 1921, at Sloane
Hospital for Women in Uptown Manhattan. Davis gave her birth date as July
6, 1923, a date cited throughout most of her life. She was of English descent. She
was the only child of Kenneth Seymour
Robbins (1892–1972), a farmer turned car salesman who had been born into a
once-well-to-do family, and his actress wife, Edith Prescott Luckett (1888–1987). Her godmother was a silent film star, Alla Nazimova. From
birth, she was commonly called Nancy.
Robbins lived her first two years in Flushing, Queens, a
neighborhood of New York City, in a two-story house on Roosevelt Avenue between
149th and 150th Streets. Her parents separated soon after her birth and were
divorced in 1928. After their separation, her mother traveled the country to pursue
acting jobs and Robbins was raised in Bethesda, Maryland, for six years by her
aunt, Virginia Luckett, and uncle, Audley Gailbraith, where she attended Sidwell Friends School for kindergarten
through second grade. Nancy later described longing for her mother during those
years: "My favorite times were when
Mother had a job in New York, and Aunt Virgie would take me by train to stay
with her."
In 1929, her mother married Loyal Edward Davis (1896–1982), a prominent conservative
neurosurgeon who moved the family to Chicago. Nancy and her stepfather got
along very well; she later wrote that he was "a man of great integrity who exemplified old-fashioned
values". He formally adopted her in 1938, and she would always refer
to him as her father. At the time of the adoption, her name was legally changed
to Nancy Davis. She attended the Girls'
Latin School of Chicago (describing herself as an average student), from
1929, until she graduated in 1939, and later attended Smith College in Massachusetts, where she majored in English and
drama, graduating in 1943.
Acting career
In 1940, a young Davis appeared as a National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
volunteer in a memorable short subject film shown in movie theaters to raise
donations for the crusade against polio. The
Crippler featured a sinister figure spreading over playgrounds and farms,
laughing over its victims, until finally dispelled by the volunteer. It was
very effective in raising contributions.
Following her graduation from college, Davis held jobs in
Chicago as a sales clerk in Marshall
Field's department store and as a nurse's aide. With the help of her
mother's colleagues in theatre, including ZaSu
Pitts, Walter Huston, and Spencer
Tracy, she pursued a professional career as an actress. She first gained a
part in Pitts' 1945 road tour of Ramshackle Inn, moving to New York City. She
landed the role of Si-Tchun, a
lady-in-waiting, in the 1946 Broadway musical about the Orient, Lute Song, starring Mary
Martin and a pre-fame Yul Brynner.
The show's producer told her, "You
look like you could be Chinese."
After passing a screen test, she moved to California and
signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Studios Inc. (MGM) in 1949; she later remarked, "Joining Metro was like walking into a dream world." Her
combination of attractive appearance—centered on her large eyes—and somewhat
distant and understated manner made her hard at first for MGM to cast and
publicize. Davis appeared in eleven feature films, usually typecast as a "loyal housewife",
"responsible young mother", or "the steady woman". Jane
Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Leslie Caron, and Janet Leigh were among the actresses with whom she competed for
roles at MGM.
Davis' film career began with small supporting roles in two
films that were released in 1949, The
Doctor and the Girl with Glenn Ford
and East Side, West Side starring Barbara Stanwyck. She played a child
psychiatrist in the film noir Shadow on
the Wall (1950) with Ann Sothern
and Zachary Scott; her performance
was called "beautiful and
convincing" by New York Times
critic A. H. Weiler. She co-starred
in 1950's The Next Voice You Hear...,
playing a pregnant housewife who hears the voice of God from her radio.
Influential reviewer Bosley Crowther
of The New York Times wrote that "Nancy Davis [is] delightful as [a]
gentle, plain, and understanding wife." In 1951, Davis appeared in Night into Morning, her favorite screen
role, a study of bereavement starring Ray Milland. Crowther said that Davis "does nicely as the fiancée who is
widowed herself and knows the loneliness of grief", while another
noted critic, The Washington Post's Richard L. Coe, said Davis "is splendid as the understanding
widow". MGM released Davis from her contract in 1952; she sought a
broader range of parts, but also married Reagan, keeping her professional name
as Davis, and had her first child that year She soon starred in the science
fiction film Donovan's Brain (1953);
Crowther said that Davis, playing the role of a possessed scientist's "sadly baffled wife", "walked
through it all in stark confusion" in an "utterly silly" film. In her next-to-last movie, Hellcats of the Navy (1957), she played
nurse Lieutenant Helen Blair, and
appeared in a film for the only time with her husband, playing what one critic
called "a housewife who came along
for the ride". Another reviewer, however, stated that Davis plays her
part satisfactorily, and "does well
with what she has to work with".
Author Garry Wills
has said that Davis was generally underrated as an actress because her constrained
part in Hellcats was her most widely seen performance. In addition, Davis
downplayed her Hollywood goals: promotional material from MGM in 1949 said that
her "greatest ambition" was
to have a "successful happy
marriage"; decades later, in 1975, she would say, "I was never really a career woman but [became one] only because I
hadn't found the man I wanted to marry. I couldn't sit around and do nothing, so
I became an actress." Ronald Reagan biographer Lou Cannon nevertheless
characterized her as a "reliable"
and "solid" performer who
held her own in performances with better-known actors. After her final film, Crash Landing (1958), Davis appeared
for a brief time as a guest star in television dramas, such as the Zane Grey Theatre episode "The Long Shadow" (1961),
where she played opposite Ronald Reagan,
as well as Wagon Train and The Tall Man until she retired as an
actress in 1962.
During her career, Davis served for nearly ten years on the
board of directors of the Screen Actors
Guild. Decades later, Albert Brooks
attempted to coax her out of acting retirement by offering her the title role
opposite himself in his 1996 film Mother.
She declined to care for her husband, and Debbie Reynolds played the part.
Marriage and family
During her Hollywood career, Davis dated many actors,
including Clark Gable, Robert Stack,
and Peter Lawford; she later called
Gable the nicest of the stars she had met. On November 15, 1949, she met Ronald Reagan, who was then president
of the Screen Actors Guild. She had
noticed that her name had appeared on the Hollywood blacklist. Davis sought
Reagan's help to maintain her employment as a guild actress in Hollywood and
for assistance in having her name removed from the list. Ronald Reagan informed her that she had been confused with another
actress of the same name. The two began dating and their relationship was the
subject of many gossip columns; one Hollywood press account described their
nightclub-free times together as "the
romance of a couple who have no vices". Ronald Reagan was skeptical about marriage, however, following his
painful 1949 divorce from Jane Wyman,
and he still saw other women.
After three years of dating, they eventually decided to
marry while discussing the issue in the couple's favorite booth at Chasen's, a restaurant in Beverly
Hills. The couple wed on March 4, 1952, at the Little Brown Church in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, in
a simple, hastily-arranged ceremony designed to avoid the press; the marriage was
her first and his second. The only people in attendance were fellow actor William Holden (the best man) and his
wife, actress Brenda Marshall (the
matron of honor). Nancy was likely already pregnant; the couple's first child, Patricia Ann Reagan (later better known
by her professional name, Patti Davis),
was born less than eight months later on October 21, 1952. Their son, Ronald Prescott Reagan (later better
known as Ron Reagan) was born six
years later on May 20, 1958. Reagan also became stepmother to Maureen Reagan (1941–2001) and Michael Reagan (b. 1945), her husband's
children from his marriage to Jane
Wyman.
Observers described Nancy and Ronald's relationship as
intimate. As President and First Lady, the Reagans were reported
to display their affection frequently, with one press secretary noting, "They never took each other for
granted. They never stopped courting." Ronald often called Nancy "Mommy"; she called him "Ronnie". While the president
was recuperating in the hospital after the 1981 assassination attempt, Nancy
wrote in her diary, "Nothing can
happen to my Ronnie. My life would be over." In a letter to Nancy,
Ronald wrote, "Whatever I treasure
and enjoy ... all would be without meaning if I didn't have you." In
1998, a few years after her husband had been given a diagnosis of Alzheimer's
disease, Nancy told Vanity Fair, "Our relationship is very special. We
were very much in love and still are. When I say my life began with Ronnie,
well, it's true. It did. I can't imagine life without him." Nancy was
known for the focused and attentive look, termed "the Gaze”, which she fastened upon her husband during his
speeches and appearances.
President Reagan's death in June 2004 ended what Charlton
Heston called "the greatest love
affair in the history of the American Presidency".
Nancy's relationship with her children was not always as
close as her bond with her husband. She frequently quarreled with her children
and her stepchildren. Her relationship with Patti was the most contentious;
Patti flouted American conservatism, rebelled against her parents by joining
the nuclear freeze movement, and authored many anti-Reagan books. The nearly 20
years of family feuding left Patti very much estranged from both her mother and
father. Soon after her father's Alzheimer's disease was diagnosed, Patti and
her mother reconciled and began to speak daily. Nancy's
disagreements with Michael were also public matters; in 1984, she was quoted as
saying that the two were in an "estrangement
right now". Michael responded that Nancy was trying to cover up for
the fact she had not met his daughter, Ashley, who had been born nearly a year
earlier. They too eventually made peace. Nancy was thought to be closest to her
stepdaughter Maureen during the White
House years, but each of the Reagan children experienced periods of estrangement
from their parents.
First Lady of
California (1967–1975)
Nancy Reagan was the First Lady of California during her
husband's two terms as governor. She disliked living in the state capital of
Sacramento, which lacked the excitement, social life, and mild climate to which
she was accustomed in Los Angeles. She first attracted controversy early in
1967; after four months' residence in the California
Governor's Mansion in Sacramento, she moved her family into a wealthy suburb
because fire officials had labeled the mansion as a "firetrap". Though the Reagans had leased the new house
at their expense, the move was viewed as snobbish when the matter was brought
to the attention of the general public. Reagan defended her actions as being
for the good of her family, a judgment with which her husband readily agreed.
Friends of the family later helped support the cost of the leased house, while
Reagan supervised the construction of a new ranch-style governor's residence in nearby
Carmichael. The new residence was finished just as Ronald Reagan left office in 1975, but his successor, Jerry Brown, refused to live there. It
was sold in 1982, and California governors lived in improvised arrangements
until Brown moved into the Governor's
Mansion in 2015.
In 1967, Governor
Reagan appointed his wife to the California
Arts Commission, and a year later she was named Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year; in its profile, the Times labeled her "A Model First Lady". Her glamour, style, and
youthfulness, made her a frequent subject for press photographers. As First Lady, Reagan visited veterans,
the elderly, and the handicapped, and worked with several charities. She
became involved with the Foster
Grandparents Program, helping to popularize it in the United States and
Australia. She later expanded her work with the organization after arriving in
Washington and wrote about her experiences in her 1982 book To Love a Child. The Reagans held
dinners for former POWs and Vietnam War veterans while governor and first lady.
Role in 1976 and 1980
presidential campaigns
Governor Reagan's
gubernatorial time in office ended in 1975, and he did not run for a third
term; instead, he met with advisors to discuss a possible bid for the 1976
presidency, challenging incumbent President
Gerald Ford. Ronald still needed to convince a reluctant Nancy before
running, however. She feared for her husband's health and his career as a
whole, though she felt that he was the right man for the job and eventually
approved. Nancy took on a traditional role in the campaign, holding coffees,
luncheons, and talks. She also oversaw personnel, monitored her husband's
schedule, and occasionally provided press conferences. The 1976 campaign
included the so-called "battle of
the queens", contrasting Nancy with First Lady Betty Ford. They both spoke out throughout the
campaign on similar issues but with different approaches. Nancy was upset by
the warmonger image that the Ford campaign had drawn of her husband.
Though he lost the 1976 Republican nomination, Ronald Reagan
ran for the presidency a second time in 1980. He succeeded in winning the
nomination and defeated incumbent rival Jimmy
Carter in a landslide. During this second campaign, Nancy played a
prominent role, and her management of staff became more apparent. She organized
a meeting among feuding campaign managers John
Sears and Michael Deaver and her
husband, which resulted in Deaver leaving the campaign and Sears being given
full control. After the Reagan camp lost the Iowa Caucus and fell behind in New
Hampshire polls, Nancy organized a second meeting and decided it was time
to fire Sears and his associates; she gave Sears a copy of the press release
announcing his dismissal. Her influence on her husband became particularly notable;
her presence at rallies, luncheons, and receptions increased his confidence.
First Lady of the
United States (1981–1989)
White House glamour
Renovation
Reagan became the First
Lady of the United States when Ronald
Reagan was inaugurated as President in
January 1981. Early in her husband's presidency, Reagan stated her desire to
create a more suitable "first
home" in the White House,
as the building had fallen into a state of disrepair following years of
neglect. White House aide Michael Deaver described the second and
third-floor family residence as having "cracked
plaster walls, chipped paint [and] beaten up floors"; rather than use
government funds to renovate and redecorate, she sought private donations. In
1981, Reagan directed a major renovation of several White House rooms, including all of the second and third floors and
rooms adjacent to the Oval Office,
including the press briefing room. The renovation included repainting walls,
refinishing floors, repairing fireplaces, and replacing antique pipes, windows,
and wires. The closet in the master bedroom was converted into a beauty parlor
and dressing room, and the West bedroom was made into a small gymnasium.
The First Lady
secured the assistance of renowned interior designer Ted Graber, popular with affluent West Coast social figures, to
redecorate the family living quarters. A Chinese-pattern, hand-painted
wallpaper was added to the master bedroom. Family furniture was placed in the
president's private study. The First Lady
and her designer retrieved several White
House antiques, which had been in storage, and placed them throughout the
mansion. In addition, many of Reagan's own collectibles were put out for
display, including around twenty-five Limoges
Boxes, as well as some porcelain eggs and a collection of plates.
The extensive redecoration was paid for by private
donations. Many significant and long-lasting changes occurred as a result of
the renovation and refurbishment, of which Reagan said, "This house belongs to all Americans, and I want it to be
something of which they can be proud." The renovations received some
criticisms for being funded by tax-deductible donations, meaning some of it
eventually did indirectly come from the tax-paying public.
Fashion
Reagan's interest in fashion was another one of her
trademarks. While her husband was still president-elect, press reports
speculated about Reagan's social life and interest in fashion. In many press
accounts, Reagan's sense of style was favorably compared to that of a previous First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. Friends
and those close to her remarked that, while fashionable like Kennedy, she would
be different from other First Ladies;
close friend Harriet Deutsch was
quoted as saying, "Nancy has her own
imprint."
White House
photographer Mary Anne Fackelman-Miner,
who was assigned to Reagan, said of her, "She
always photographed so easily and was at ease in front of the cameras."
Reagan's wardrobe consisted of dresses, gowns, and suits
made by luxury designers, including James
Galanos, Bill Blass, and Oscar de la
Renta. Her white, hand-beaded, one-shoulder Galanos 1981 inaugural gown was
estimated to cost $10,000, while the overall price of her inaugural wardrobe
was said to cost $25,000. She favored the color red, calling it "a picker-upper", and wore it
accordingly. Her wardrobe included red so often that the fire-engine shade became
known as "Reagan red". She
employed two private hairdressers, who would style her hair regularly
in the White House.
Fashion designers were pleased with the emphasis Reagan
placed on clothing. Adolfo said the first lady embodied an "elegant, affluent, well-bred, chic American look", while
Bill Blass commented, "I don't think there's been anyone in
the White House since Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who has her
flair." William Fine,
president of the cosmetic company Frances
Denney, noted that she "stays in
style, but she doesn't become trendy."
Though her elegant fashions and wardrobe were hailed as a "glamorous paragon of chic", they
were also controversial subjects. In 1982, she revealed that she had accepted
thousands of dollars in clothing, jewelry, and other gifts, but defended her
actions by stating that she had borrowed the clothes, that they would
either be returned or donated to museums, and that she was promoting the
American fashion industry. Facing criticism, she soon said she would no longer
accept such loans. While often buying her clothes, she continued to borrow and
sometimes keep designer clothes throughout her time as First Lady, which came to light in 1988. None of this had been
included on financial disclosure forms; the non-reporting of loans under
$10,000 in liability was in violation of a voluntary agreement the White House had made in 1982, while not
reporting more valuable loans or clothes not returned was a possible violation
of the Ethics in Government Act.
Reagan expressed through her press secretary "regrets that she failed to heed counsel's advice" on
disclosing them.
Despite the controversy, many designers who allowed her to
borrow clothing noted that the arrangement was good for their businesses, as
well as for the American fashion industry overall. In 1989, Reagan was honored
at the annual gala awards dinner of the Council
of Fashion Designers of America, during which she received the council's
lifetime achievement award. Barbara
Walters said of her, "She has
served every day for eight long years the word 'style.'"
Extravagance
Approximately a year into her husband's first term, Nancy
explored the idea of ordering new state china service for the White House. A full China service had
not been purchased since the Truman administration in the 1940s, as only a
partial service was ordered in the Johnson administration. She was quoted as
saying, "The White House really
badly, badly needs China." Working with Lenox, the primary porcelain
manufacturer in America, the First Lady
chose a design scheme of red with an etched gold band, bordering the scarlet and
cream-colored ivory plates with a raised presidential seal etched in gold in
the center. The full service comprised 4,370 pieces, with 19 pieces per
individual set. The service totaled $209,508. Although it was paid for by
private donations, some from the private
J. P. Knapp Foundation, the purchase generated quite a controversy, for it was
ordered at a time when the nation was undergoing an economic recession.
Furthermore, news of the China purchase emerged at the same time that her
husband's administration had proposed school lunch regulations that would allow
ketchup to be counted as a vegetable.
The new china set, White
House renovations, expensive clothing, and her attendance at the wedding of
Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess
of Wales, gave her an aura of being "out
of touch" with the American people during the recession. This built
upon the reputation she had coming to Washington, wherein many people concluded
that Reagan was a vain and shallow woman, and her taste for splendor inspired
the derogatory nickname "Queen
Nancy". While Jacqueline
Kennedy had also faced some press criticism for her spending habits,
Reagan's treatment was much more consistent and negative. In an attempt to
deflect the criticism, she self-deprecatingly donned a baglady costume at the 1982 Gridiron Dinner and sang "Second-Hand Clothes",
mimicking the song "Second-Hand
Rose". The skit helped to restore her reputation.
Reagan reflected on the criticisms in her 1989
autobiography, My Turn. She
described lunching with former Democratic National Committee chairman Robert S. Strauss, wherein Strauss said
to her, "When you first came to
town, Nancy, I didn't like you at all. But after I got to know you, I changed
my mind and said, 'She's some broad!'" Reagan responded, "Bob based on the press reports I read
then, I wouldn't have liked me either!"
After the presidency of Jimmy
Carter (who dramatically reduced the formality of presidential functions),
Reagan brought a Kennedy-esque glamour back into the White House. She hosted 56
state dinners over eight years. She remarked that hosting the dinners is "the easiest thing in the world. You
don't have to do anything. Just have a good time and do a little business. And
that's the way Washington works." The White House residence staff found Reagan demanding to work for
during the preparation for the state dinners, with the First Lady overseeing every aspect of meal presentations, and
sometimes requesting one dessert after another to be prepared, before
finally settling on one she approved of.
In general, the First
Lady's desire for everything to appear just right in the White House led the residence staff to
consider her not easy to work for, with tirades following what she perceived as
mistakes. One staffer later recalled, "I
remember hearing her call for her personal maid one day and it scared the
dickens out of me—just her tone. I never wanted to be on the wrong side of
her." She did show loyalty and respect to a number of the staff. In
particular, she came to the public defense of a maid who was indicted on
charges of helping to smuggle ammunition to Paraguay, providing an affidavit to
the maid's good character (even though it was politically inopportune to do so at
the time of the Iran–Contra Affair);
charges were subsequently dropped, and the maid returned to work at the White House.
In 1987, Mikhail
Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to visit Washington, D.C. since Nikita Khrushchev made the trip in 1959
at the height of the Cold War. Nancy
was in charge of planning and hosting the important and highly anticipated
state dinner, to impress both the Soviet leader and especially
his wife Raisa Gorbacheva. After the
meal, she recruited pianist Van Cliburn
to play a rendition of "Moscow
Nights" for the Soviet delegation, to which Mikhail and Raisa broke
out into song. Secretary of State George
P. Shultz later commented on the evening, saying "We felt the ice of the Cold War crumbling." Reagan
concluded, "It was a perfect ending
for one of the great evenings of my husband's presidency."