US first lady (19819), born in New York City, New York, USA. She studied drama at Smith College and became an actress in Hollywood where she met Ronald Reagan; they married in 1952. Fiercely protective of her husband, she was criticized by some for her interference in White House decision-making, but others pointed out that she provided a realistic counterweight to her husband's more casual and conservative approach.
| Nancy Reagan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 6, 1921 Flushing, New York, USA |
| Occupation | First Lady of the United States |
| Spouse | Ronald Reagan |
Nancy Davis Reagan (born July 6, 1921) is the widow of Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
Early life
She was born Anne Frances Robbins in Flushing, New York to Kenneth Seymour Robbins and his actress wife, Edith Luckett.
Actress
Soon after graduation she became a professional actress using the stage name Nancy Davis.
In most of her roles, Nancy Davis played decent, godly, morally incorruptible characters, whose overall unremarkableness limited her visibility as an actress.
She also served on the Screen Actors Guild Board for nearly 10 years, during which time she would marry Ronald Reagan, who was president of the guild.
Marriage and family
She met Ronald Reagan in 1951, when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and an actress with the same name had appeared on the Hollywood blacklist. This name confusion with the other actress was a concern of Nancy Davis in maintaining her employment as a SAG actress in Hollywood, and she was put in contact with Reagan for help in getting her name off this list.
The Reagans had two children born from their marriage. Son Ron Reagan was born on May 20, 1958. Nancy Reagan is also stepmother to Michael Reagan and the late Maureen Reagan, the children of Ronald Reagan's first marriage to actress Jane Wyman.
First Lady of California
Nancy Reagan was First Lady of California from 1967 to 1975, during her husband's two terms as governor.
She attracted controversy at the start of her stint when she moved out of the Governor's Mansion in Sacramento, after fire officials had described it as a "firetrap", and into a wealthy suburb.
As California first lady, she visited veterans, the elderly, and the handicapped, and worked in conjunction with a number of charitable groups.
First Lady of the United States
As First Lady, Nancy Reagan attracted controversy early on by announcing the purchase of $200,000 worth of new china for the White House — albeit paid for by a private foundation — at a time when the nation was undergoing a recession;
Nancy Reagan was famous for the adoring look she fastened upon her husband during his speeches and appearances. Behind the scenes, though, Nancy Reagan had some influence in White House operations, especially over personnel matters and her husband's image and legacy. Nancy Reagan is widely considered to have exercised a somewhat moderating influence over White House policy, particularly during the President's second term.
Reagan is well-remembered for conservative fashions emulated by many women of the time, for championing the "Just Say No" campaign against juvenile drug use, and for her personal use of astrology. It finally became a major embarrassment, as it was disclosed that Nancy influenced the White House time schedule of her husband.
In October 1987, Nancy Reagan was discovered to have breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy.
Kitty Kelley's 1991 book Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography became the fastest-selling biography in publishing history.
In 1983 Reagan, along with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and philanthropists Barbara and Marvin Davis, appeared as herself in an episode of the highly popular primetime soap opera Dynasty. In addition, Reagan appeared as herself in an episode of the popular sitcom Diff'rent Strokes to underscore her support for her "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign.
Later life
Nancy Reagan currently resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, where she had tended to the former President who, before his death on June 5, 2004, was debilitated by Alzheimer's disease.
In 2004, Warner Books published "Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House, 1911-1980" by Bob Colacello, a longtime Vanity Fair writer and friend of Mrs. Reagan.
Mrs. Reagan was briefly hospitalized in 2005 after she slipped and fell in her hotel room in London, where she had gone to visit Margaret Thatcher and Prince Charles. Sun City Girls have a song entitled "Nancy Reagan" on their 1987 album, Horse Cock Phepner. The 1988 DC Comics limited series Millennium revealed the Nancy Reagan of the DC Comics universe had been killed by a race of evil robots known as Manhunters and replaced with an android duplicate. The android Nancy Reagan was still active following the end of the series, although any future activities in which she may have participated are unrecorded. Melanie Chartoff and Terry Sweeney are known for doing devastatingly accurate impersonations of Nancy Reagan on their respective sketch comedy shows (Chartoff on "Fridays" and Sweeney on "Saturday Night Live"). Mission of Burma's 2006 album, The Obliterati, features a song titled "Nancy Reagan's Head" and contains the line "I'm haunted by the freakish size of Nancy Reagan's head / no way that thing came with that body." The Violent Femmes have a song called "Old Mother Reagan".
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