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U.S. NEWS A3
Monday 7 March 2016
Nancy Reagan time interest in horoscopes, This 1986 photo shows first lady Nancy Reagan holding the Reagans’ pet Rex as she and President
maintained that she used Reagan walk on the White House South lawn. The former first lady has died at 94, The AP confirmed
Continued from page 2 the astrologer’s forecasts
only in hopes of predict- Sunday, March 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
She was criticized for fi- ing the safest times for her
nancing these pet projects husband to venture out of
with donations from mil- the White House after the
lionaires who might seek assassination attempt.
influence with the govern- Anne Frances Robbins,
ment, and for accepting nicknamed Nancy, was
gifts and loans of dresses born on July 6, 1921, in
worth thousands of dollars New York City. Her parents
from top designers. Her lav- separated soon after she
ish lifestyle — in the midst was born and her mother,
of a recession and with film and stage actress Edith
her husband’s administra- Luckett, went on the road.
tion cutting spending on Nancy was reared by an
the needy — inspired the aunt until 1929, when her
mocking moniker “Queen mother married Dr. Loyal
Nancy.” Davis, a wealthy Chicago
But her admirers credited neurosurgeon who gave
Mrs. Reagan with restor- Nancy his name and a
ing grace and elegance socialite’s home. She ma-
to the White House after jored in drama at Smith
the austerity of the Carter College and found stage
years. work with the help of her
Her substantial influence mother’s connections.
within the White House In 1949, MGM signed
came to light slowly in her 5-foot-4, doe-eyed bru-
husband’s second term. nette Nancy Davis to a
Although a feud between movie contract. She was
the first lady and chief of cast mostly as a loyal
staff Donald Regan had housewife and mother.
spilled into the open, the She had a key role in “The
president dismissed reports Next Voice You Hear ...,”
that it was his wife who got an unusual drama about
Regan fired. “The idea that a family that hears God’s
she is involved in govern- voice on the radio.
mental decisions and so She met Ronald Reagan in
forth and all of this, and be- 1950, when he was presi-
ing a kind of dragon lady dent of the Screen Actors
— there is nothing to that,” Guild and she was seeking
a visibly angry Reagan as- help with a problem: Her
sured reporters. name had been wrongly
But Mrs. Reagan herself included on a published
and other insiders later list of suspected commu-
confirmed her role in round- nist sympathizers. They dis-
ing up support for Regan’s cussed it over dinner, and
ouster and persuading the she later wrote that she
president that it had to be realized on that first blind
done, because of the Iran- date “he was everything
Contra scandal that broke that I wanted.”
under Regan’s watch. They wed two years later,
She delved into policy is- on March 4, 1952. Daugh-
sues, too. She urged Rea- ter Patti was born in Oc-
gan to finally break his long tober of that year and
silence on the AIDS crisis. son Ron followed in 1958.
She nudged him to pub- Reagan already had a
licly accept responsibility daughter, Maureen, and
for the arms-for-hostages an adopted son, Michael,
scandal. And she worked from his marriage to ac-
to buttress those advisers tress Jane Wyman. (Later,
urging him to thaw U.S. public spats with her grown
relations with the Soviet children would become a
Union, over the objections frequent source of embar-
of the administration’s “evil rassment for Mrs. Reagan.)
empire” hawks. She was thrust into the
Near the end of Reagan’s political life when her hus-
presidency, ex-chief of staff band ran for California
Regan took his revenge governor in 1966 and won.
with a memoir revealing She found it a surprisingly
that the first lady routinely rough business.
consulted a San Francisco “The movies were custard
astrologer to guide the compared to politics,” Mrs.
president’s schedule. Mrs. Reagan said.q
Reagan, who had a long-
