Nancy Reagan

Nancy Davis Reagan (b. July 6, 1921, New York City, NY – d. March 6, 2016, Bel Air, CA) was an American film actress, and the wife of the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. She served as the First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. As Nancy Davis, she was a Hollywood actress in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1952, she married Ronald Reagan; 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. Reagan became First Lady of the United States in January 1981. She aimed to restore a Kennedyesque 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. In general 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. 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. Reagan remained active within the Reagan Library and in politics, particularly in support of embryonic stem cell research, until her death on March 6, 2016.