FLOTUS: Nancy Reagan Part I

 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."