97 Facts About Nancy Reagan

1.

Nancy Davis Reagan 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.

2.

In 1952, she married Ronald Nancy Reagan, who was then president of the Screen Actors Guild.

3.

Nancy Reagan had two children from his previous marriage to Jane Wyman and he and Nancy had two children together.

4.

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.

5.

Nancy Reagan became First Lady of the United States in January 1981, following her husband's victory in the 1980 presidential election.

6.

Nancy Reagan 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.

7.

Nancy Reagan generally had a strong influence on her husband and played a role in a few of his personnel and diplomatic decisions.

8.

Nancy Reagan 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.

9.

Nancy Reagan remained active within the Nancy 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.

10.

Nancy Reagan was the only child of Kenneth Seymour Robbins, a farmer turned car salesman who had been born into a once-prosperous family, and his actress wife, Edith Prescott Luckett.

11.

Nancy Reagan's parents separated soon after her birth and were divorced in 1928.

12.

Nancy Reagan and her stepfather got along very well; she later wrote that he was "a man of great integrity who exemplified old-fashioned values".

13.

Nancy Reagan formally adopted her in 1938, and she would always refer to him as her father.

14.

Nancy Reagan attended the Girls' Latin School of Chicago, from 1929, until she graduated in 1939, and later attended Smith College in Massachusetts, where she majored in English and drama, graduating in 1943.

15.

Nancy Reagan first gained a part in Pitts' 1945 road tour of Ramshackle Inn, moving to New York City.

16.

Nancy Reagan 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.

17.

Nancy Reagan co-starred in 1950's The Next Voice You Hear.

18.

MGM released Davis from her contract in 1952; she sought a broader range of parts, but married Nancy Reagan, keeping her professional name as Davis, and had her first child that year.

19.

Nancy Reagan declined in order to care for her husband, and Debbie Reynolds played the part.

20.

On November 15,1949, she met Ronald Nancy Reagan, who was then president of the Screen Actors Guild.

21.

Nancy Reagan had noticed that her name had appeared on the Hollywood blacklist.

22.

Davis sought Nancy Reagan's help to maintain her employment as a guild actress in Hollywood and for assistance in having her name removed from the list.

23.

Ronald Nancy Reagan informed her that she had been confused with another actress of the same name.

24.

Ronald Nancy Reagan was skeptical about marriage following his painful 1949 divorce from Jane Wyman, and he still saw other women.

25.

Nancy Reagan frequently quarreled with her children and her stepchildren.

26.

Michael responded that Nancy Reagan was trying to cover up for the fact she had not met his daughter, Ashley, who had been born nearly a year earlier.

27.

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.

28.

Nancy Reagan was First Lady of California during her husband's two terms as governor.

29.

Nancy Reagan 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.

30.

Nancy Reagan 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 labelled the mansion as a "firetrap".

31.

Nancy Reagan defended her actions as being for the good of her family, a judgment with which her husband readily agreed.

32.

Friends of the family later helped support the cost of the leased house, while Nancy Reagan supervised construction of a new ranch-style governor's residence in nearby Carmichael.

33.

The new residence was finished just as Ronald Nancy Reagan left office in 1975, but his successor, Jerry Brown, refused to live there.

34.

In 1967, Governor Nancy 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".

35.

Nancy Reagan became involved with the Foster Grandparents Program, helping to popularize it in the United States and Australia.

36.

Nancy Reagan later expanded her work with the organization after arriving in Washington, and wrote about her experiences in her 1982 book To Love a Child.

37.

Ronald still needed to convince a reluctant Nancy Reagan before running, however.

38.

Nancy Reagan 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.

39.

Nancy Reagan took on a traditional role in the campaign, holding coffees, luncheons, and talks.

40.

Nancy Reagan oversaw personnel, monitored her husband's schedule, and occasionally provided press conferences.

41.

Nancy Reagan was upset by the warmonger image that the Ford campaign had drawn of her husband.

42.

Nancy Reagan succeeded in winning the nomination and defeated incumbent rival Jimmy Carter in a landslide.

43.

Nancy Reagan 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.

44.

Nancy Reagan became the first lady of the United States when Ronald Nancy Reagan was inaugurated as president in January 1981.

45.

Early in her husband's presidency, Nancy 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.

46.

In 1981, Nancy 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.

47.

Nancy Reagan's wardrobe consisted of dresses, gowns, and suits made by luxury designers, including James Galanos, Bill Blass, and Oscar de la Renta.

48.

Nancy Reagan's 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.

49.

Nancy Reagan favored the color red, calling it "a picker-upper", and wore it accordingly.

50.

Nancy Reagan's wardrobe included red so often that the fire-engine shade became known as "Reagan red".

51.

Nancy Reagan employed two private hairdressers, who would style her hair on a regular basis in the White House.

52.

Fashion designers were pleased with the emphasis Nancy Reagan placed on clothing.

53.

Nancy Reagan expressed through her press secretary "regrets that she failed to heed counsel's advice" on disclosing them.

54.

In 1989, Nancy 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.

55.

Approximately a year into her husband's first term, Nancy Reagan explored the idea of ordering new state china service for the White House.

56.

Nancy Reagan reflected on the criticisms in her 1989 autobiography, My Turn.

57.

Nancy Reagan was in charge of planning and hosting the important and highly anticipated state dinner, with the goal to impress both the Soviet leader and especially his wife Raisa Gorbacheva.

58.

Nancy Reagan first became aware of the need to educate young people about drugs during a 1980 campaign stop in Daytop village, New York.

59.

Nancy Reagan became actively involved by traveling more than 250,000 miles throughout the United States and several nations, visiting drug abuse prevention programs and drug rehabilitation centers.

60.

Nancy Reagan appeared on television talk shows, recorded public service announcements, and wrote guest articles.

61.

Nancy Reagan 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".

62.

In 1985, Nancy 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.

63.

Critics of Nancy Reagan's efforts questioned their purpose, labelled Nancy 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.

64.

Nancy Reagan assumed the role of unofficial "protector" for her husband after the attempted assassination of him in 1981.

65.

Nancy Reagan was alerted and arrived at George Washington University Hospital, where the President was hospitalized.

66.

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.

67.

Nancy Reagan volunteered for their campaign in 1980, as she was impressed by his astrological chart.

68.

Nancy Reagan thought he should resign, and expressed this to her husband, although he did not share her view.

69.

Nancy Reagan became so angry with Regan that he hung up on her during a 1987 telephone conversation.

70.

Nancy 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]".

71.

Press framing of Nancy Reagan changed from that of just helpmate and protector to someone with hidden power.

72.

In October 1987, a mammogram detected a lesion in Nancy Reagan's left breast and she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

73.

Nancy Reagan chose to undergo a mastectomy rather than a lumpectomy, and the breast was removed on October 17,1987.

74.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan regularly attended the Bel Air Church as well.

75.

Nancy Reagan continued to reside at the Bel Air home, where she lived with her husband until he died on June 5,2004.

76.

Nancy Reagan continued to travel around the United States, speaking out against drug and alcohol abuse.

77.

Nancy Reagan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President George W Bush on July 9,2002.

78.

President Nancy Reagan received his own Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 1993.

79.

Ronald Nancy Reagan died in their Bel Air home on June 5,2004.

80.

Nancy Reagan kept a strong composure, traveling from her home to the Reagan Library for a memorial service, then to Washington, DC, where her husband's body lay in state for 34 hours prior to a national funeral service in the Washington National Cathedral.

81.

Nancy Reagan 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.

82.

Nancy Reagan paid very close attention to the details, something she had always done in her husband's life.

83.

Nancy Reagan hosted two 2008 Republican presidential debates at the Nancy Reagan Presidential Library, the first in May 2007 and the second in January 2008.

84.

News commentators noted that Nancy Reagan's step had slowed significantly, as the following month she walked in very slow strides with John McCain.

85.

In October 2008, Nancy Reagan was admitted to Ronald Nancy Reagan UCLA Medical Center after falling at home.

86.

In January 2009, Nancy Reagan was said to be "improving every day and starting to get out more and more".

87.

Nancy Reagan traveled to Washington, DC in June 2009 to unveil a statue of her late husband in the Capitol rotunda.

88.

Nancy Reagan was on hand as President Obama signed the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act, and lunched privately with Michelle Obama.

89.

Nancy Reagan revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair that Michelle Obama had telephoned her for advice on living and entertaining in the White House.

90.

Nancy Reagan hosted a 2012 Republican presidential debate at the Nancy Reagan Presidential Library on September 7,2011.

91.

Nancy Reagan 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".

92.

On March 6,2016, Nancy Reagan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 94.

93.

Nancy Reagan was ranked the lowest in half of the criteria.

94.

Regard for Nancy Reagan has improved in subsequent iterations of the survey.

95.

Nancy Reagan's great extended public silence on this matter has been contrasted with her coinciding vocalness against drug use.

96.

Nancy Reagan's extended failure to give significant public acknowledgement of this epidemic has been seen as one of the greatest detractions in her retrospective public regard.

97.

However, there has been reporting to suggest that, privately, Nancy Reagan did unsuccessfully urge her husband's administration to address the epidemic.