Nancy Davis Reagan (born Anne Frances Robbins on July 6, 1921) is the widow of the former United States President
Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the
United States from 1981 to 1989.
Nancy became an actress in the 1940s, starring in films such as Donovan's Brain, Night into Morning, and Hellcats of the Navy. She married then-president of the Screen Actor's Guild Ronald Reagan in 1952; they have two children. Ronald Reagan was
Governor of California from 1967 to 1975, making Nancy the First Lady of
California. In January of 1981, Nancy became the First Lady of the United
States with Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential victory. She
experienced a great deal of criticism early in her husband's first term, due largely to her decision to replenish the
White House china. She took on a championing role in recreational drug prevention causes by founding the "Just Say No" Drug
Awareness Campaign, which was considered her major initiative as First Lady. Amidst the Cold
War, Nancy aided in softening relations between the Soviet Union and America, by
suggesting Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and her husband form a personal
relationship. However, it was leaked in 1988 that she had consulted an astrologer to assist
in planning the president's schedule after the 1981 assassination attempt,
generating more controversy.
The Reagans retired to their Bel Air, Los Angeles, California home in 1989. Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994 and Nancy devoted most of her time to caring for him until his
death ten years later on June
5. As of 2007, Nancy Reagan has continued to stay active in politics particularly relating to stem-cell research.
Early life
Born Anne Frances Robbins on July 6, 1921 in Flushing, New York's Sloan Hospital, she was the only child of car
salesman Kenneth Seymour Robbins (1894–1972)[1] and his
actress wife, Edith Luckett (1888–1987).[2] While her parents divorced in 1928, they were separated for some time before
then. Nancy was raised in Bethesda, Maryland by her Aunt Virginia and Uncle Audley
Gailbraith for six years during her childhood, as her mother traveled the country to pursue acting jobs.[3] Nancy describes longing for her mother during those years, saying, "My
favorite times were when Mother had a job in New York, and Aunt Virgie would take me by train to stay with her."[4]
In 1929, her mother married Loyal Davis (1896–1982), a prominent politically conservative neurosurgeon who moved her mother
and Nancy to Chicago.[5] Nancy and her stepfather got along very
well;[6] she would later write that he was "a
man of great integrity who exemplified old-fashioned values."[7] In 1935 he formally adopted her,[5] and she would always refer to him as her
father.[6] After the adoption, her name was
legally changed to Nancy Davis; although her given name was Anne Frances, she had commonly been known as Nancy since her
birth.[8] She received her formal education at the
Girls' Latin School of Chicago (describing herself as an average student),
graduating in 1939, and later at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she majored in English and drama and graduated in 1943.[9][2]
Acting career
Nancy Davis poses for a publicity photo, 1950
Following her graduation, Davis held jobs in Chicago as a
sales clerk in Marshall Field's department store and as
a nurse's aide.[2] With the help of her mother's colleagues in the theatre world, including
Zasu Pitts, Walter Huston, and Spencer Tracy,[6] she
pursued a career as a professional actress. She first gained a part in Pitts' 1945 road tour of Ramshackle Inn,[2][5]
then settled in New York. She landed the role of Si-Tchun, a lady-in-waiting,[10] in the 1946
Broadway musical about the Orient, Lute Song, starring Mary Martin and Yul Brynner.[2] She got the part after the show's producer told her,
"You look like you could be Chinese."[11]
After passing a screen test,[2] she signed a seven-year contract with MGM Studios in 1949,[5] saying "Joining Metro was like walking into a dream world."[12] Davis appeared in 11 feature films, usually typecast as a "loyal housewife,"[13] "responsible young mother", or "the steady woman";[14] she kept her professional name as Nancy Davis even after marrying. Her
film career began with minor roles in 1949's The Doctor and the Girl with Glenn Ford,
and followed with East Side, West Side starring Barbara Stanwyck.[15] She played a
child psychiatrist in the film noir
Shadow on the Wall (1950) with Ann Sothern and Zachary Scott; The New York Times' critic A. H. Weiler
called her "beautiful and convincing" in the role.[16]
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".[17] A later critic admired the fact an attempt was made to make Davis actually look pregnant, as many
other films from the time neglected to do.[18] In 1951
Davis appeared in Night Into Morning, a study of bereavement starring Ray Milland.
The Times' Crowther said Davis "does nicely as the fiancée who is widowed herself and knows the loneliness of
grief;"[19] this was Nancy's favorite screen
role.[20] Davis left MGM in 1952, looking for a broader
range of parts.[21] She soon starred in the 1953 science
fiction film Donovan's Brain; Crowther said Davis, playing the role of a
possessed scientist's "sadly baffled wife", "walked through it all in stark confusion" in an "utterly silly" film.[22] In her last movie, Hellcats of the Navy (1957), she played nurse Lieutenant Helen Blair, and shared the screen for
the only time with her husband, playing what one critic noted as "a housewife who came along for the ride."[23] Another reviewer, however, stated that she does "a good job" of playing
her part, and "does well with what she has to work with."[24]
Noted author Garry Wills believes that Davis was underrated as an actress overall,
because her constrained part in Hellcats became her most widely-seen role.[14] Davis herself seemed to downplay her Hollywood goals: 1949 MGM
promotional material said her "greatest ambition" was to have a "successful happy marriage,"[14] while 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."[14] Ronald Reagan
biographer Lou Cannon believes this was an overstatement, and characterized her as a
"reliable" and "solid" performer, holding her own in working across better-known actors.[14]
After her final film, she appeared in television dramas such as Wagon Train and
The Tall Man until 1962, when she retired as an actress.[15] During her
career, she served on the Screen Actors Guild board of directors for nearly 10
years.[25]
Marriage and family
Once in Hollywood, Nancy Davis had dated actors, including Clark Gable for a brief
period, whom she later called the nicest man of the big-name stars she had met.[6] Nancy met Ronald Reagan on November 15,
1949,[26] while he was president of the Screen Actor's Guild. Concerned that she would be confused
with another actress by the same name who appeared on the Hollywood blacklist, she
contacted him to help maintain her employment as a guild actress in Hollywood, and for help in removing her name from the
list.[6] The two began dating and became
publicly visible; one Hollywood press account described their nightclub-free times together as "the romance of a couple who have
no vices."[26] Ronald Reagan was
skeptical about marriage, however, following his painful divorce from Jane Wyman in 1948, and
still occasionally saw other women.[26] Finally he proposed to her at their favorite booth in the Beverly Hills restaurant Chasen's.[26] On March 4, 1952, they were married — in a simple ceremony designed to avoid the press[27] — in the San
Fernando Valley of Los Angeles at the Little Brown Church.
William Holden and his wife were the best man and maid of honor, as well as the only
people in attendance.[28][26]
Their first child, Patricia Ann Reagan (better known under her professional name Patti
Davis), was born on October 21, 1952. Their son,
Ronald Prescott Reagan, was born six years later, on May 20.
Nancy Reagan is also stepmother to Michael Reagan and the late Maureen Reagan, the children of her husband's first marriage to actress Jane Wyman.
Nancy and Ronald Reagan on a boat in 1964
Observers described Ronald and Nancy Reagan's relationship as close, real, and intimate.[29] While President and First Lady, the Reagans were reported to display their
affection for each other frequently, with one press secretary noting, "They never took each other for granted. They never stopped
courting."[30][31] He often called her "Mommy"; she called him "Ronnie".[31] While the President was recuperating in the hospital after
the assassination attempt in 1981, Nancy Reagan slept with one of his shirts to be comforted by the scent;[32] in a
letter to Nancy, President Reagan wrote, "whatever I treasure and enjoy [...] all would be without meaning if I didn’t have
you."[33] In 1994,
President Reagan wrote "I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with
Alzheimer's disease [...] I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from
this painful experience,"[30] and in
1998, while her husband was severely affected by the 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."[30] Nancy Reagan was known for the focused and attentive look she fastened upon her husband
during his speeches and appearances, nicknamed "the Gaze."[34] President Reagan's death in June 2004 ended what Charlton Heston called "the greatest love affair in the history of the American Presidency."[30]
Nancy's relationship with her children was not always the close and intimate one as with her husband. Patti and Ron, as well
as stepchildren Maureen and Michael, quarreled with Nancy frequently. Her relationship with Patti was the most contentious; Patti
flouted American conservatism and rebelled against her parents by joining the nuclear freeze
movement and authoring many anti-Reagan books.[35]
Nancy was thought to be closest to Maureen, her stepdaughter, during the White House years, but each of the Reagan children
experienced periods of estrangement with their parents.[30]
First Lady of California, 1967–1975
Reagan was First Lady of California during her husband's two terms as governor. She did not like living in Sacramento, which lacked the excitement, mild climate, and social circle that she was used to
from the Los Angeles area.[36] She
first attracted controversy early in 1967, when after four months she moved her family out of the California Governor's Mansion in Sacramento and into a wealthy suburb, after fire
officials had described the house as a "firetrap."[37] The Reagans leased the new house at their own expense,[36] but nonetheless the move was perceived by many as snobbery; Nancy
defended her actions as being for the good of her family, a judgement to which her husband readily agreed.[37][36] Later Reagan friends helped support the cost of the leased house, as
Nancy Reagan supervised construction of a new ranch-style governor's residence in
nearby Carmichael.[38] This was finished just as the Reagans left office in 1975, but successor Jerry Brown refused to live there; it was eventually sold in 1982, and California governors have been living
in improvised arrangements ever since.[38]
In 1967 Nancy Reagan was appointed by her husband to the California Arts
Commission,[39] and a year later was named a
Los Angeles Times' Woman of the
Year; in its profile, the Times labeled her as "A Model First Lady".[40] She was a frequent subject of press photographers for her
glamor, style, and youthfulness.[41]
As California's First Lady, Reagan visited veterans, the elderly, and the handicapped, and worked in conjunction with a number
of charitable groups.[42] She began her involvement with the Foster
Grandparent Program,[43] helping to popularize it in the United States and later in
Australia;[44] she
would continue and expand her work with it after arriving in Washington,[43] and her 1982 book To Love a Child would be
focused on the organization.[45] The Reagans also held
dinners for former POWs and Vietnam War veterans
while Governor and First Lady.
On the campaign trail
-
Governor Reagan's term ended in 1975, and he did not run for a third. Instead, he met with advisors to discuss a possible bid
for the presidency in 1976, something they approved of. Reagan had to convince a reluctant Nancy
before doing anything, however.[46] She eventually
approved and did her part in the campaign: oversaw personnel, monitored her husband's schedule, and gave occasional
press conferences. He lost the 1976 Republican nomination to the incumbent President
Gerald Ford, but ran again for the presidency in 1980 and succeeded in winning the nomination. During this campaign, her
managing of staff became more apparent.[47] She arranged a meeting between
feuding campaign staffers John Sears and Michael
Deaver with her husband, which resulted in Deaver's leaving the campaign and placing Sears in charge. 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 him a
copy of the press release announcing his letting-go.[47] As well as being influential, Nancy
continued to answer questions from the press and give speeches when needed. She played a large part in her husband's successful
1980 presidential bid.
First Lady of the United States, 1981–1989
First Lady Nancy Reagan and President Reagan during the inaugural parade, 1981
When Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president of the United States in 1981, Nancy Reagan became the First Lady. Though a
controversial First Lady, more then half of Americans had a favorable opinion of her when her husband left office in
1989.[48]
White House china and glamor
Early in her tenure as First Lady, Nancy Reagan stated that it was one of her objectives to create a home in the
White House. Rather than use government funds to renovate and redecorate the floors, she
sought private funds to complete the work.[2] Nancy drew controversy early on by announcing the purchase of 4,370 pieces of a
new scarlet, cream and gold state china service for the White House costing $210,399.[49] Although the china was paid for by private
donations, as well as the private Knapp Foundation, it was ordered at a time when the nation was undergoing an economic recession.[50]
Another of Nancy Reagan's trademarks was glamor. After the years of Gerald Ford (who
favored the "Michigan Fight Song" over "Hail to the Chief") and Jimmy Carter (who dramatically toned down the formality of presidential functions), Nancy brought
Kennedy-esque glamor back into the White House.[51] Her elegant fashions and wardrobe were also controversial
subjects. Nancy favored the color red, saying "I always liked red. It's a picker-upper," and wore it accordingly.[51] She chose dresses and gowns
made by luxury designers, including James Galanos and Oscar de la Renta; her 1981 Galanos inaugural gown was estimated to cost $10,000.[51] In 1982, she revealed that she
had accepted thousands of dollars in clothing, jewelry and gifts, but defended her actions by stating that she had borrowed the
clothes and that they would either be returned or donated to museums.[51] The new china, a White House renovation, expensive clothing, and
her attendance at the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, gave her an aura of being "out of touch" with the American people. This and her
taste for splendor inspired the derogatory nickname "Queen Nancy."[2] In an attempt to deflect this criticism, at the
1982 Gridiron Dinner she self-deprecatingly donned a baglady costume and sang "Second-Hand Clothes," a mimicking version of "Second-Hand Rose."[52]
President Reagan's assassination attempt
Nancy Reagan hosts the First Ladies Conference on Drug Abuse at the White House in 1985
-
On March 30, 1981, President Reagan and three others were
struck by gunfire when leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel. Nancy was alerted of a shooting and arrived at George Washington University Hospital not long after the event took place. She recalls
having seen "emergency rooms before, but I had never seen one like this—with my husband in it."[53] She was escorted into a waiting room, and when granted access to see the
president he said to her, "Honey, I forgot to duck" (borrowing defeated boxer Jack Dempsey's line to his wife).[54] While President Reagan was in the hospital
recuperating, Nancy slept with one of his shirts to be comforted by the scent.[55] Upon his release from the hospital on April 12, she personally
escorted President Reagan back to the White House.
"Just Say No"
- Further information: Just Say No
Nancy Reagan launched the "Just Say No" Drug Awareness Campaign in 1982, it being
considered her primary project and major initiative as First Lady.[2] While visiting a school in Oakland, California, she was asked by a schoolgirl what to do if she was offered drugs; Nancy responded by saying, "Just say no."[56] The phrase soon proliferated through the popular culture of the 1980s and was eventually adopted as
the name of club organizations, as well as anti-drug programs in schools.[2] Reagan traveled over 250,000 miles throughout the United
States and several nations, visiting drug prevention programs and rehabilitation centers. She also appeared on television talk
shows, taped public service announcements, and wrote guest articles.[2]
In 1985, Nancy expanded the campaign to an international level by inviting the First Ladies of different 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 dollars to fight the crisis, and ensured a mandatory minimum penalty for drug
offenses.[57] Although the bill
was criticized by some, Nancy Reagan said that she considered it a personal victory.[2] In 1988, she became the first First Lady invited to
address the United Nations General Assembly, speaking on international
drug interdiction and trafficking laws.[2]
Critics of "Just Say No" and the American war on drugs argued that the program itself was too expensive to be taught. Its
purpose was questioned as well. Author Jeff Elliot states that the Reagan administration's usage of the words " drug use" and
"drug abuse" were synonymous, commenting on Dr. Michael Newcomb claiming that there is "no evidence that most people who
experiment with drugs get hooked."[58]
Mrs. Reagan sits on
Mr. T's lap in the
White House Cross Hall
during a 1983 Christmas party for underprivileged children of the District
Nonetheless, there are a number of "Just Say No" clubs and organizations still in operation around the country, aimed at
educating children and teens about the effects of drugs.[59] In 1983, Reagan appeared as herself in an episode of the soap opera Dynasty to underscore support for the anti-drug campaign. In addition, she appeared in an
episode of a popular 1980s sitcom Diff'rent Strokes,[60] as well as in a rock music video Stop the Madness in 1985, also to promote "Just Say No."
Her husband's protector
Reagan took on a role as being her husband's unofficial "protector" after the attempted assassination in 1981. One of the
first instances of this took place when Senator Strom Thurmond entered the president's
hospital room that day in March, passing the Secret Service detail claiming he was the President's "close friend" presumably to
acquire media attention.[61] Amidst all the events of the
day, Nancy was outraged and demanded he be thrown out of the room.[32]
Nancy stated in her memoirs, "I felt panicky every time he left the White House,"[62] and made it her concern to know her husband's schedule: what
events he would be attending, when, where, and with whom.[2] Eventually, this "protection" led to the consultation of an astrologer,
Joan Quigley, who gave insight on which days were "good," "neutral," or "days that should
be avoided," which influenced the White House time schedule of her husband. Days were
color-coded according to the astrologer's advice to discern precisely what days and at what times would be optimal for safety and
success.[2]
The White House Chief of Staff, Donald
Regan, grew frustrated with this regimen, which created friction between him and the First Lady. While the two were
talking on the telephone in 1987, Regan became so angry that he hung up on the First Lady. According to former ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson, when the President heard of this
treatment, he demanded—and eventually received—Regan's 1987 resignation.[63] In his 1988 memoirs, Regan released the fact that Reagan consulted an astrologer, resulting in
embarrassment for Nancy.[64]
Cold War
It was Nancy Reagan who suggested the notion that Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and her husband, Ronald Reagan, form a personal relationship with each other before
discussing nuclear affairs during the Cold War.[2] In 1985, 1987, and 1988, while discussions between
the Soviet Leader and the President took place, Nancy met with Gorbachev's wife, Raisa. The two women usually had tea, and discussed differences between the USSR and the United States. Their relationship was anything but the
friendly, diplomatic one between their husbands, however; Nancy found Raisa too hard to converse with and somewhat
shrewd.[2]
Visiting the United States for the first time in 1987, Raisa 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?"[65]
Later life
Upon leaving the White House on January 20, 1989, the
Reagans returned to California, where they purchased a second home in the Bel
Air section of Los Angeles, dividing their time between that home and the
Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara,
California. After leaving Washington Nancy Reagan made numerous public appearances, many on behalf of her husband.
In late 1989, she established the Nancy Reagan Foundation, which aimed to continue to educate
people about the serious dangers of substance abuse.[66] The Foundation teamed with the BEST Foundation For A Drug-Free Tomorrow in 1994, and
developed the Nancy Reagan Afterschool Program. Subsequently she continued to travel around the nation, speaking out against the
abuse of drugs and alcohol. After President Reagan revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994, she made herself his primary care-person and became actively involved
with the National Alzheimer’s Association and its affiliate, the Ronald & Nancy Reagan Research Institute in Chicago, Illinois.[2]
Reagan published her memoirs in late 1989. Titled My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan, she gives an account of her
life in the White House, speaking openly about the influence she had within the Reagan administration and about the myths and
controversies that surrounded her and her husband.[67] In 1991, controversial author Kitty Kelley wrote
an unauthorized, and largely uncited, biography about Nancy Reagan, repeating rumors of supposed sexual relations with singer
Frank Sinatra, and a poor relationship with her children. National Review observes that Kelley's unsupported claims are most likely untrue.[68][69]
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest
civilian honor, by President George W. Bush on July 9,
2002.[70] President Reagan received
his own Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 1993. Earlier in 2002, Nancy and her husband were jointly awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal on May 16 at the
Capitol Building, being only the third President and First Lady to receive it; she was on hand to receive the medal on behalf of
herself and her husband.[71]
Nancy has continued to stay active in politics, particularly relating to stem cell research. In 2004, she favored the
Democrat's position, crossing party lines to urge President George W.
Bush to support embryonic stem cell research in the hopes that such research would lead to a
cure for Alzheimer's disease.[72] She was not notably
successful in changing the President's opinion, and did support his campaign for a second term.[73]
Nancy Reagan resides in her Bel Air home, where she lived with her husband until his death on June
5, 2004.[74] During the six-day state
funeral, Nancy, escorted by her military escort, traveled from her home to the Reagan Library, and to Washington, D.C.,
before returning to the library in California for the interment. At that ceremony, she broke down and cried for the first time in
public during the week, and mouthed "I love you" to the casket before leaving.[75]
She was briefly hospitalized in 2005 upon falling during a trip to the United
Kingdom,[76] and attended the National funeral service for Gerald Ford two years later in the Washington National Cathedral. She also continues to present the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award to one notable person who "embodied President Reagan's lifelong
belief that one man or woman truly can make a difference." On February 6, 2007, she presented it to former President George H.W. Bush; other
notable recipients include Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, and Rudy Giuliani.[77] On
May 3 of the same year, Nancy Reagan hosted and attended the first 2008 Republican Presidential
Candidates Debate at the Reagan Presidential Library. While she did not participate in any of the discussions, she sat in the
front row and listened as the men vying to become the nation's 44th president claimed to be the rightful successor to her
husband, the 40th.
Reagan attended the funeral of Lady Bird Johnson in Austin, Texas on July 14, 2007,[78] and three days later
accepted the highest Polish distinction, the Order of the White Eagle, on
behalf of Ronald Reagan at the Reagan Library. She mourned the death of friends Merv
Griffin and Michael Deaver in August of that year.[79][80] On October 18,
2007, Reagan joined Betsy Bloomingdale and
Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad in honoring her
once-fashion designer James Galanos with the Rodeo
Drive Style Award.[81]
Filmography
