American First Lady, wife of President Ronald Reagan, author of “My Turn, The Memoirs of Nancy Regan,” 1980, and “First Lady.” Nicknamed “Nancy” in infancy, Reagan is the daughter of actress Edith Luckett and car dealership owner Kenneth Robbins. After Dad left, shortly after Nancy’s birth, Mom struggled on her own for two years, then departed to pursue her acting career, leaving Nancy with an aunt and uncle in Bethesda, MD. Subsequent episodes with both parents left more scars on the already traumatized toddler. Her mother did not return when Nancy was ill with pneumonia at age four. When the girl was 12, her dad locked her in a room for an entire afternoon after a bitter argument. “Recalling the incident brings back a flood of memories I would rather forget.” Suffering severe separation anxiety, Nancy replaced parental desertion with a laser-like focus on a future full of romance, marriage and above all, domestic bliss.
At age 14 Nancy moved to Chicago where her mom had married wealthy surgeon Loyal Davis who adopted his wife’s daughter, showering her with love, financial security and material comfort. After graduating high school, Nancy attended Smith College, where she majored in drama and obtained a degree in 1943. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Nancy left for Hollywood to pursue a career and became a contract player with MGM, appearing in 11 films between 1949 and 1956. She played supporting characters, then lead roles, never quite reaching star status. While she was filming “East Side, West Side,” Nancy met another actor Ronald Reagan, and the couple married on March 4, 1952. “My life began when I married Ronnie.”
In 1958, she retired from the screen to raise their two kids and two step-kids. She was always an active helpmate to her husband’s career through the ’60s and ’70s as he moved into politics. He was elected California Governor for two terms, 1967-74, and U.S. President 1981-89. She exercised her talent as a savvy political wife who possessed a strong instinct for protecting her husband, with her three major areas of concern being her husband’s image, his staff and his schedule. Everyone in his sphere was carefully scrutinized by Nancy, and her son Ron once observed her rationale of assessing specific individuals: “Is this person hurting my father or helping him? And once she’s come down on one side or the other, then she’s going to be either a powerful ally, or an enemy you don’t want to have.”
After husband Ronald was elected as President on November 4, 1980 and installed in office in January, the First Lady turned heads with her excessive extravagance yet she showed deep commitment to community service. She received kudos for initiating the Foster Grandparent Program but gained her most applause for championing the War on Drugs, traveling over 100,000 miles to 59 cities, 30 states and 7 foreign countries to spread the word of the horrors of drug abuse. Nancy came under fire when it was learned that she consulted an astrologer after her husband was shot by a would-be assassin on March 30, 1981. In October 1987 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy.
Nancy is the mother of two children, daughter Patti born in 1952 and Ronald, Jr., born in 1959. After Reagan left the White House, Nancy and he moved to their California ranch where he gradually began to fail with Alzheimer’s disease. She cared for him during his 10-year struggle with the disease, all the while protecting his public image. When he died on June 5, 2004 at 1:09 PM at their home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles, CA, Nancy was at his side.
Nancy Reagan died of congestive heart failure on 6 March 2016 at her home in Los Angeles, California, aged 94.
Link to Wikipedia biography