Nancy
Davis Reagan (born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6,
1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American actress and the wife of the40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. She was the First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
She was born in New York City. After her parents separated, she
lived in Maryland with an aunt and uncle for some years. She moved to Chicago when her mother remarried and she took
the name Davis from her stepfather. As Nancy
Davis, she was a Hollywood actress in the 1940s and 1950s, starring in
films such as The Next Voice
You Hear..., Night into
Morning, and Donovan's
Brain. In 1952, she married Ronald Reagan who was then president of the Screen Actors Guild. They had two
children together. 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.
Nancy Reagan became First Lady of the United States in January
1981, following her husband's victory in the 1980
presidential election. She was criticized early in his first term largely due
to her decision to replace the White
House china, despite its being paid for by private donations. She aimed to
restore a Kennedy-esque glamour
to the White House following years of lax formality, and her interest in
high-end fashion garnered much attention as well as criticism. She championed recreational drug prevention causes by founding the "Just Say
No" drug awareness campaign, which was considered her major initiative as
First Lady. More controversy ensued when it was revealed in 1988 that she had
consulted an astrologer to assist in planning the president's
schedule after theattempted assassination of her husband in 1981. She had a strong influence on
her husband and played a role in a few of his personnel and diplomatic
decisions.
The Reagans retired to their home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, in
1989. Nancy devoted most of her time to caring for her husband, diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994, until his death at the age of 93 in 2004. Nancy
remained active within theReagan Library and
in politics, particularly in support of embryonic
stem cell research, until her death in March 2016.
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