Nancy Reagan, the influential wife of President Ronald Reagan, died Sunday morning at her Los Angeles home.
The cause of death was congestive heart failure, said Joanne Drake, a spokeswoman from Reagan’s office.
The former first lady will be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., next to her husband, former President Ronald Reagan. Members of the public will have the opportunity to pay their respects at the library before the funeral service. Funeral details have not yet been released.
“In leiu of flowers, Mrs. Reagan requested that contributions be made to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Foundation,” Drake added.
Reagan was a major influence on her husband’s career and his work in the White House.
“Without Nancy, there would have been no Gov. Reagan, no President Reagan,” said Michael Deaver, the longtime aide of the Reagans who died in 2007, according to a New York Times obituary of Mrs. Reagan.
Nancy Reagan suffered through negative publicity in her early days in the White House. Her consultations with an astrologist later drew mockery. She worked to recover from bad press with a carefully managed public image that included her role in an anti-drug campaign highlighted by her famous instruction: “Just say no.”
Reagan was renowned as a fierce and often prickly protector of her husband’s interests. Other aides said she played a key role in the 1987 firing of White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan. Mrs. Reagan blamed Regan for the failing to prevent the Iran-Contra scandal, in which President Reagan secretly approved arms sales to Iran, with proceeds illegally used to back right-wing rebels in Nicaragua.
But she was also angered that Regan hung up on her during a phone call, according to many accounts.
Nancy Reagan played a key role in convincing her husband to issue a partial apology for the scandal in March 1987.
Nancy Reagan was born in New York City on July 6, 1921. She pursued acting after majoring in theater at Smith College in Massachusetts. She performed in 11 films from 1949 to 1956, including “Shadow on the Wall” and “Hellcats of the Navy,” in which she played opposite her husband, Ronald Reagan.
After meeting in 1951, Nancy and Ronald married the following year.
“He was all I had ever wanted in a man, and more,” she wrote in My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan, published in 1989.
She served as first lady of California from 1967 to 1975 and first lady of the U.S. from 1981 to 1989.
During her time in the California state house and the White House, Reagan got involved in charity work, focusing on veterans and the elderly. After became involved in the Foster Grandparent Program, she later wrote about it in her 1982 book, To Love a Child.
“Nancy Davis Reagan has led a remarkable life — as an adoring daughter, a loving mother, a devoted and sensitive partner, and a worthy ambassador for our country as first lady,” Ronald Reagan said in 1994. “I have seen her cope bravely with life’s most difficult challenges, exuding grace and dignity and strength. I am so proud of this woman … I can’t imagine life without her.”
As a result of the 1981 assasination attempt that almost killed President Reagan and left White House Press Secretary Jim Brady paralyzed, Nancy Reagan and her husband later advocated gun control, supporting the 1994 Brady Bill, which required background checks for many gun sales, against opposition from the National Rifle Association and other gun rights advocates.
“You didn’t have to be a Reagan Republican to admire and respect Nancy Reagan,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., an author of the bill, said in a statement Sunday.
“She persuaded her husband to support the Brady Law, and their advocacy was instrumental in helping us pass it,” Schumer said.
Ronald Reagan died on June 5, 2004, following a long struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Nancy Reagan reacted to his illness in part by becoming an advocate for stem cell research.
In 2001, she broke with President George W. Bush, who controversially restricted researchers’ access to embryonic stem cells, endorsing federal support for stem cell research.
After President Reagan fell ill, it was Nancy Reagan whose support Republican presidential candidates regularly sought in trips to the Reagan Library.
Nancy and Ronald had two children together: a daughter, Patricia Ann, and a son, Ronald.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama said in a statement Sunday that they benefited from Mrs. Reagan’s “proud example, and her warm and generous advice.”
“Our former First Lady redefined the role in her time here,” the Obamas said. “Later, in her long goodbye with President Reagan, she became a voice on behalf of millions of families going through the depleting, aching reality of Alzheimer’s, and took on a new role, as advocate, on behalf of treatments that hold the potential and the promise to improve and save lives.”
“We offer our sincere condolences to their children, Patti, Ron, and Michael, and to their grandchildren,” they said. “And we remain grateful for Nancy Reagan’s life, thankful for her guidance, and prayerful that she and her beloved husband are together again.”
Data curated by InsideGov
