Nancy Reagan

First Lady

• Born: July 6, 1921
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: March 6, 2016
• Place of death: Los Angeles, California

President:Ronald Reagan 1981–1989

Overview

Nancy Reagan, one of the most controversial First Ladies, was also one of the few to serve two complete terms. Politically, Nancy was solidly conservative, as was her husband. Ronald Reagan’s election to the presidency ushered in a new era in American politics. In eight years, Nancy evolved from a political liability to a holder of considerable power in the Reagan administration.

Early Life

Anne Frances Robbins was born July 6, 1921, the only child of actress Edith Luckett and Kenneth Robbins, a car salesman. Although she was christened Anne Frances, she was always called Nancy. Shortly after her birth, Nancy’s parents divorced. After that, she rarely heard from her father. Edith Luckett continued her work as a stage actress, and Nancy spent her first two years as a “backstage baby.”

In 1923, wanting her child to have a normal life, Edith sent Nancy to Bethesda, Maryland, to live with relatives for several years. As a girl, Nancy played with dolls and gave them tea parties on the front steps of the house. Her happiest childhood memories were visits with her mother in New York. Nancy loved to dress up in her mother’s costumes, wear her stage makeup, and pretend to be an actress.

Edith Luckett remarried in 1929, and Nancy moved with her to Chicago. Loyal Davis, Nancy’s stepfather, was a prominent neurosurgeon and chairman of the department of surgery at Northwestern University. His ultraconservative political views may well have shaped Nancy’s thinking, but as a girl she disliked politics. She was more excited by their apartment on Lake Shore Drive, which overlooked Lake Michigan. Although initially jealous of the relationship between Edith and Loyal, Nancy came to love the doctor. Secure in a family at last, fourteen-year-old Nancy initiated adoption proceedings and became Nancy Davis.

Through her teens and twenties, Nancy Davis’s first love was theater. An average student at the exclusive Girls’ Latin School, she acted in all the school plays. In her senior year, she played the lead in First Lady by George S. Kaufman. In 1939, Nancy had her debut and entered Smith College. She majored in English and drama. Nancy acted in several college plays, but her real experience in theater came during vacations when she worked as an apprentice in the summer stock theaters of New England. She ran errands, cleaned the dressing rooms, painted scenery, sold tickets, and occasionally performed.

Her first professional role came in 1943, when an old friend of her mother offered Nancy a small part in the traveling company of a play called Ramshackle Inn (1943). The show ultimately made its way to New York, and when the run was over, Nancy decided to stay there. She found a fourth-floor walk-up apartment at 409 East Fifty-first Street and acted on the “subway circuit” in the outer boroughs of New York. Eventually, Nancy made it to Broadway. She appeared in Lute Song (1945) with Mary Martin and Yul Brynner. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) scout saw her in a production and asked her to come to Hollywood for a screen test. She was soon signed to a seven-year contract at a weekly salary of $250.

Marriage and Family

Nancy Davis had a short, successful movie career. In her fifth film, The Next Voice You Hear (1950), she received top billing. In most of her twelve films, Nancy was cast as a young mother or a pregnant woman. This corresponded with her personal plans. When she signed with MGM, Nancy was asked to fill out a questionnaire for the publicity department. Under “ambition” she wrote: “to have a successful marriage.” She always knew she would give up acting “when the right man came along.”

In the fall of 1949, Nancy Davis urged a producer to introduce her to Ronald Reagan. She had seen the actor in films and “liked what I saw.” When they met, Nancy claimed it was very nearly “love at first sight.” She appreciated his sense of humor and felt that, unlike other actors she had dated, Ronald was not obsessed with himself or show business. The courtship proceeded slowly, however, as Ronald was still on the rebound after his divorce from actress Jane Wyman.

Nancy Davis and Ronald Reagan were married in a private ceremony on March 4, 1952. The Reagans’ first child, Patti, was born on October 22, 1952. She had two half siblings, Maureen and Michael, from her father’s earlier marriage; they lived with their mother but spent quite a bit of time on the Reagans’ ranch. On May 20, 1958, Nancy gave birth to a son, Ron. Michael Reagan later described her as an affectionate but demanding and overprotective mother. Nancy wanted her children to be as neat and orderly as she was, but they would, to various degrees, become caught up in the counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1954, Ronald was asked to host General Electric Theater on television. He introduced each episode and starred in four programs per year. Occasionally, Nancy appeared with him. When the Reagans built a new home at 1669 San Onofre Drive in Pacific Palisades, California, General Electric (GE) turned their house into a showcase for its latest electrical appliances. The benefits of the job were many, but, as a corporate spokesman, Ronald was continually traveling for the company. He worked for G.E. for eight years and spent the equivalent of two full years away from home.

While Ron was on the road, the couple communicated through letters between “Daddie Poo Pants” and “Mommie Poo Pants.” These letters reflect a deeply emotional love affair. As Ronald wrote in 1955, “I’ve always loved and missed you but never has it been such an actual ache. . . . I find myself hating these people for keeping us apart. Please be real careful because you carry my life with you every second.” These separations were too painful for the couple, and after his GE commitments ended, the Reagans were never again apart for more than a few days.

Ronald had gone to work for General Electric in 1954 as a Roosevelt Democrat. Eight years later, he left as a committed Republican. From visiting GE plants across the United States and talking to the workers, he became increasingly concerned about government interference in the free enterprise system and in the lives of individuals. In 1962, Ronald officially changed his party affiliation. For the next two years, while hosting Death Valley Days, a Western television series sponsored by the Borax Company, he used his fame to campaign for Republican candidates.

By 1965, the Friends of Ronald Reagan had been formed by a group of California businessmen to encourage his candidacy for governor in 1966. Nancy wrote to a friend, “It boggles the mind but maybe it’ll get me out of the carpool.” Later, Michael Reagan claimed his father had no political ambitions but that Nancy and her father had pushed him into running. Initially, Nancy wanted no part of active campaigning. She was shy, uncomfortable in crowds, and terrified of making speeches. As the campaign progressed, however, Reagan’s staff convinced her that in order for the Reagan campaign to cover the large state and win the election, she would have to take a larger role. Nancy obliged and learned to enjoy the give-and-take with voters. She was proud to return home every evening and share their concerns with the candidate. Ronald won the election by a landslide.

When the family moved to Sacramento, Nancy realized the governor’s mansion was noisy, dilapidated, and a fire hazard. She refused to live there with her children. Much to the consternation of Ronald’s staff, the family moved to an estate in the suburbs. The move out of the inner city provoked charges of racism, and Nancy responded by hiring an MGM publicity agent for her staff.

The Reagans disliked the old mansion so much that Nancy undertook a campaign to build a new home for their successors. To this end, Nancy sought donations of furniture from the public. In 1970, as Ronald Reagan sought reelection, his opponent attempted to make Nancy’s furniture collection an issue. He charged that she solicited antiques for her own personal use. In response, she held her first press conference and explained that she was collecting historical pieces which would be given to the state to be used by future governors. She defused the issue, and Reagan was elected to a second term.

As First Lady of California, Nancy Reagan sought an active role for herself. Because of her father’s work, she had always been interested in hospitals; as the governor’s wife, she made frequent visits to state hospitals. At Pacific State Hospital, Nancy was introduced to the Foster Grandparents Program, which paired older people with children who had special needs. The program, which created many meaningful relationships, was small and poorly funded. With her husband’s help, Nancy raised money and saw the program expanded to all state hospitals. She was such an enthusiastic proponent of Foster Grandparents that on a trip to Australia she helped a hospital there organize its own program.

Reagan’s tenure as governor of California (1967–1975) coincided with the growing opposition to United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. Nancy believed pulling out of Vietnam would be immoral, but she was sincerely worried about the returning soldiers. She made regular trips to veterans’ hospitals and listened to horrific war stories. Nancy also volunteered to call the soldiers’ wives and mothers. While on an official trip to Vietnam, she insisted on visiting every hospital where there were wounded Americans. She soon became concerned about the plight of American prisoners of war. Nancy wrote a column for a Sacramento newspaper, answering the questions people sent her as the state’s First Lady. All her profits from the column were donated to the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. As prisoners were released and processed through California, Nancy invited them all to a private family dinner in her home.

Although she was an active governor’s wife, she was criticized for her old-fashioned views on marriage. Reporters mocked “the gaze,” the worshipful way she stared at her husband when he spoke. It was called “a kind of transfixed adoration more appropriate to a witness of the Virgin Birth.” In the age of women’s liberation, Nancy insisted her first priority was providing her husband with a warm and loving home, “a source of comfort and strength.” Nonetheless, by the end of Reagan’s term as governor, the press and prominent Republicans were suggesting that Nancy had too much power over her husband and his political decisions. She responded with an interview in a woman’s magazine where she claimed her “sole joy” was “being Mrs. Ronald Reagan.” When asked if she would like to be First Lady of the United States, Nancy responded: “I just want to be Ronald Reagan’s wife.”

Speculation that Ronald had hopes for the presidency began in 1968. At the Republican convention—and against Nancy’s strenuous objections—he allowed his name to be put into consideration for the nomination. He had scant support, and the Reagan boom soon crashed. Never again would he make such a momentous decision without consulting Nancy.

Despite this setback, Nancy encouraged Ronald to challenge Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination in 1976. Against the moderate incumbent, Reagan argued for a strong defense system, school prayer, tax incentives, and the death penalty. He opposed gun control and federally funded abortions. In the primaries, unprecedented attention was given to the “contest of the queens.” Both Nancy Reagan and Betty Ford actively campaigned for their husbands. While Betty Ford advocated women’s rights, Nancy rallied against “drug pushers in the schools” and the decadence and depravity of American popular culture, especially in films. She also disliked the then-new term Ms., and she decried women wearing pants, saying, “a woman should look like a woman.” Unlike her opponent, Nancy rejected the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), claiming that it was “ridiculous” and not “the best way” to attain equal rights for women. She took credit for her husband’s reversal of his previous support for the ERA.

The year 1976 was not to be the Reagans’ year. Gerald Ford took the Republican nomination but lost to Jimmy Carter in the general election. The Reagans and their conservative followers spent the next four years preparing for another run for the presidency in 1980.

Nancy Reagan played a critical role in the 1980 campaign. She mediated conflicts that developed among the staff, carefully monitored her husband’s schedule, and moderated her views on women’s issues. While still opposing abortion and the ERA, she now called for equal pay for equal work. Some later speculated that Nancy was responsible for Ronald Reagan’s campaign promise to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court. Still, both Reagans remained solidly conservative, and their victory in 1980 ushered in a new era in American politics.

Presidency and First Ladyship

Nancy considered 1981 the worst year of her life. It began with published reports that she had asked the Carters to move out of the White House three weeks early so she could redecorate and that she planned to tear down one of the walls in the Lincoln Bedroom. Rumors also swirled that she was wielding tremendous power behind the scenes, vetoing selections for Reagan’s cabinet. Perhaps the most criticism was directed at Nancy’s wardrobe. Her inaugural ensemble included a donated gown valued at $25,000, a $10,000 mink coat, a fur-lined raincoat, a $1,700 dress, and a $1,500 alligator purse. This apparent excess was hotly criticized at a time when national unemployment was at 8.9 percent. Even before she had a chance to prove herself as First Lady, Nancy Reagan was accused of being obsessed with power and status.

She did not help herself when she immediately began a massive renovation of the private quarters of the White House. Nancy considered the place rundown and shabby. She wanted to make it “magnificent.” Returning the $50,000 given to every first family for remodeling, Nancy raised more than $800,000 in private contributions. This created a furor when it was revealed that $270,000 came from oil interests in Oklahoma and Texas just weeks after Reagan had removed controls on oil prices.

Nancy also solicited new china valued at hundreds of dollars per place setting. A new set of dishes had not been ordered since the Truman administration, and she thought it reflected poorly on the United States to serve state dinners on mixed china. The donation of the china, however, was announced the same day the Reagan administration proposed a forty-one billion-dollar cut in welfare programs and the Department of Agriculture declared ketchup to be an acceptable vegetable for school lunch programs. Once again, the new First Lady received a barrage of criticism.

Though people sympathized with Nancy in March, 1981, after the attempted assassination of the president, once he recovered, the censure of the First Lady resumed. That summer, when she attended the London wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, she took along eighteen attendants, including her personal hairdresser, nurse, and photographer. She presented the couple with a $75,000 glass bowl and wore $250,000 worth of diamonds and rubies. The British press dubbed her Queen Nancy. The mockery soon made it back to the United States, where a caricature of the First Lady in a crown and ermine robes appeared on postcards and posters.

Compounding her problems was the charge that Nancy’s acceptance of gowns and other clothing donated by fashion designers constituted a violation of the 1977 Ethics in Government Act, which required the Reagans to report these gifts. Whether Nancy broke the law was never resolved, but much of the public was outraged at the excess of her wardrobe. It was widely reported that just one of her handbags cost more than the annual allotment of food stamps for a family of four. In a country ensnared in the deepest recession in decades, where poor people waited in line for surplus cheese and unemployment hovered near 10 percent, Nancy did not seem to grasp the issue. She blamed the furor over her clothing on other women who were jealous that she wore a size four. Such insensitivity was not lost on the American public. A year-end Newsweek poll found 66 percent of the country opposed to Nancy’s conspicuous consumption in a time of federal budget cuts and widespread economic hardship. By the end of 1981, she had a higher disapproval rating than any other First Lady of modern times.

While Nancy was mercilessly pilloried as being shallow and supercilious during her husband’s first year in office, Ronald’s advisers considered her a political liability. They urged her to develop a socially useful project of her own. At first Nancy resisted. She considered her husband to be her “project.” When his staff told Nancy that her reputation was hurting the president, she understood. Taking up a cause was just another way to serve and support her husband. She immediately and wholeheartedly engaged in a crusade against drug abuse.

In 1982, Nancy entered this reform as a mother trying to help other parents deal with their children. She was empathetic in her approach and, according to historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony, admitted that her children used drugs. Nancy believed parents were “the answer to it all,” and emphasized nonprofit efforts, volunteerism, and the value of testimonies from young people who had overcome their own addictions. In response to criticism of the president’s slashing 26 percent from the budget for drug treatment and education, she denied that government action was necessary in the war against drugs and cited Alcoholics Anonymous as a successful, free model.

Throughout the year, Nancy used her position as First Lady to publicize the problem of drug abuse. She hosted a meeting of governors’ wives and told them there was a secret war in the United States that was capturing and killing millions of children. She urged them, as women and mothers, to organize and fight back. Addressing a meeting of media, corporate, and civic leaders, Nancy announced a new drug use prevention program. At her urging, the president appointed a drug task force. Nancy visited more than one hundred small towns across the country, warning that no area was safe from the threat of drugs. When the Reagans traveled to Europe that summer, Nancy canceled plans to attend society galas and instead visited drug treatment centers.

By 1983, the old image of Queen Nancy had been replaced by that of Nancy Reagan, crusader. As a former actress, Nancy knew how the media worked, and she used it to her advantage. She sang in the chorus of the “Stop the Madness” music video and honored singer Michael Jackson for his antidrug activities. Nancy also appeared on the popular television sitcom Diff’rent Strokes. She spoke to the year’s largest television audience during half-time at the Super Bowl and was the first president’s wife to appear on a late-night talk show. She cohosted Good Morning America, and she narrated antidrug documentaries for public broadcasting.

Committed to volunteerism in the fight against drugs, Nancy prevailed upon civic groups to join her crusade. In 1984, the Girl Scouts created a merit badge for drug-free scouts. The Kiwanis put up two thousand billboards featuring Nancy’s face and antidrug message. More than five thousand Just Say No clubs were organized after the First Lady encouraged a child in Oakland, California, to “just say no” if he was approached by a drug dealer.

While crusading for drug abuse prevention, Nancy was careful not to get too political. When she asked audiences what else she could do, many suggested she should try to get federal funding for drug prevention increased. Nancy maintained she raised awareness, not funding. She insisted the president was doing all he could to stop the drug traffic through interdiction and strengthening of the criminal justice system. Nancy also refused to become involved in the legislative process. When a congressman asked her to testify before a House committee—as Rosalynn Carter and Eleanor Roosevelt had done—on the effect of drugs on children, Nancy flatly refused. Nonetheless, by the end of 1984, her popularity rating had reached 71 percent.

Her reputation as an antidrug activist soon reached an international audience. She had a private meeting with Pope John Paul II to discuss drug abuse. In 1985, Nancy hosted an unprecedented session on drug abuse for “First Ladies” from thirty nations. It was the first time an incumbent First Lady addressed the United Nations and the first time so many wives of international leaders had met for any purpose. Nancy’s presentation led to new programs in several countries, including the United States.

In recognition of his wife’s role in the prevention of drug abuse by children, when the president signed antidrug abuse legislation in 1986, he turned the pen over to the First Lady. It was a sign of Nancy’s increasing political influence. That same year, in the first joint address by a presidential couple, the Reagans called for a national crusade against the “cancer” of drugs. Together, they finally promised to push for increased antidrug spending. Nancy Reagan was no longer the sympathetic mother or the nice lady extolling a simplistic Just Say No campaign. She had become a powerful political force in her own right. This was evident in 1988 when she became the first First Lady to address a full body of official United Nations representatives. Her speeches reflected a new strength. She charged: “Each of us has a responsibility to be intolerant of drug use anywhere, anytime, by anybody . . . be unyielding and inflexible and outspoken in your opposition to drugs.”

The sense of power and mission Nancy experienced as an antidrug crusader led her to take an increasingly active role in her husband’s administration. This became particularly apparent in Ronald’s second term, as Nancy adopted a role that more than one journalist called “associate president.”

In the 1984 presidential campaign, Nancy played a leading role. She traveled widely, reaching out to voters and sharing their concerns with the president. She defended so-called Reaganomics, hotly denying that the Republican Party was the party of the rich. Nancy proved shrewd in precinct organization, phone banks, building coalitions, and the day-to-day operations of the campaign. Once again, she monitored the president’s schedule to prevent his overexertion. When he stumbled in the first debate, Nancy dictated how he prepared for his second face-off with Democratic candidate Walter Mondale.

After Reagan won reelection by a landslide, the First Lady openly worked with the White House chief of staff and other advisers to set the agenda for Ronald’s second term. She announced her hope that the president would get rid of the “deadwood” in his cabinet. She also began to assert herself in foreign policy. As early as 1983, Nancy decided that the president’s hard line against communism was hurting his popularity. Now, she pushed for the historic signing of an Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the Soviet Union, which would end the Reagan presidency on a note of accomplishment and create a legacy that would cast her husband as a man of peace. In conjunction with these plans, as the second term progressed, she advised her husband to limit his appearances at military bases and to cut defense spending. Conservatives called this shift in President Reagan’s views Nancyism.

Reporters charged that Nancy Reagan had become the ultimate source of access to her husband, a woman who knew her power and enjoyed using it. This point was highlighted in July, 1985, when the president was diagnosed with cancer and scheduled for immediate surgery. While shielding the public—and her husband—from the truth of his condition, Nancy moved quickly to establish her authority. She announced that she would have “veto power” over any appointments, rearranged the president’s schedule for the coming weeks, and controlled all access to her husband. Nancy, rather than the vice president, filled in for Reagan at official functions. As the president recuperated, he acknowledged and praised his wife’s powerful role during the crisis. Calling Nancy “my everything” and “my partner,” he thanked her on behalf of the American people for her “strength” and “for taking part in the business of this nation.”

In 1987, the Iran-Contra scandal broke, and Ronald Reagan was accused of selling arms to the United States’ enemies. The president’s approval rating plummeted. Nancy took charge, demanding that her husband fire Chief of Staff Donald Regan, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Casey, and conservative Director of Communications Pat Buchanan. The president acceded to his wife’s wishes. The press once again became critical of the strong First Lady. The New York Times called her “power hungry” and likened her to former First Lady Edith Wilson, portraying Nancy as unelected and unaccountable but controlling the actions and appointments of the executive branch. Regan wrote a book comparing Nancy to the “ruthless” Livia, who ruled the Roman Empire through the manipulation of her hapless husband, the emperor.

Nancy, who had timidly retreated from media censure in 1981, now stood up to her critics. In a speech to news editors, she defended her actions as consistent with the requirements of her position. She stated it was legitimate for a First Lady to look after a president’s health and well-being. If that meant advocating the removal of aides who failed to serve the president, she said, she was only doing her job. As for asserting her opinion on policy matters, Nancy commented, “It’s silly to suggest that my opinion should not carry some weight with a man I’ve been married to for thirty-five years. I’m a woman who loves her husband, and I make no apologies for looking out for his personal and political welfare.”

Later, she responded in her book My Turn (1989) that Donald Regan was more concerned with his own aggrandizement than with serving the president and the country. Public opinion polls showed that the American people supported the First Lady and her definition of her role. She left office in 1989 with soaring approval ratings.

Legacy

The Reagans retired to Bel-Air, California. From there, Nancy continued her antidrug work, under the auspices of the Nancy Reagan Foundation. In 1994, Ronald disclosed that he had Alzheimer’s disease. Some observers believed that Reagan had been in declining health for years, remembering that during his presidency, Nancy would shield him from reporters’ questions, whispering responses in his ear. From the time of his diagnosis, Nancy devoted herself to Ronald’s care and made very few political appearances. In 2001, she wrote a letter to President George W. Bush, expressing her wish that federal funds be made available for controversial research on the stem cells of human embryos. Scientists believed that Alzheimer’s disease was among the medical conditions that could be helped by treatments derived from stem cells. A portion of Nancy’s letter was paraphrased in the Washington Post as saying, “My husband and I believe our legacy should be that no other family should have to go through what our family has been suffering.” Nancy Reagan was with her husband when he died in June 2004. Nancy Reagan maintained something of a political presence throughout the early twenty-first century, endorsing presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney and hosting a 2012 Republican presidential debate.

Nancy Reagan died on March 6, 2016, of heart failure, at her home in Los Angeles. She was ninety-four and is survived by her children Patti and Ron and her stepson Michael. She was buried next to her husband on the grounds of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

No one could question Nancy Reagan’s devotion to the president. She proved that a First Lady could be a devoted wife, a skilled host, an advocate for social reform, and a wielder of considerable political power. In the end, Nancy saw her most important legacy as the campaign against drug abuse. On leaving the White House, she asked to be remembered as someone who used her position to the best of her ability to help the children of the United States.

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