CHICAGO – Sunday, Nancy Reagan, wife to the late President Ronald Reagan, died in her Bel Air California home at age 94 of congestive heart failure. She lived in Chicago from the time she was eight years old until she left to attend college in Massachusetts.
Nancy Davis Reagan, born Anne Francis Robbins on July 6, 1921, moved to Chicago from when she was eight years old to join her actress mother after she married Loyal Edward Davis in 1929. Dr. Davis, a politically conservative neurosurgeon at Northwestern University, adopted Nancy when she was 14 years old.
She attended the prestigious Latin School of Chicago until she graduated in 1939, after which she left Chicago to attend college in Massachusetts.
She returned for a short time after graduating to work at Chicago's Marshall Fields before pursuing her acting career, which gradually took her to Hollywood.
Finding her name Nancy Davis being on the Hollywood Black List of suspected Communists, Ms. Davis met with the president of the Screen Actors Guild at the time to ask for help in removing her name. Ronald Reagan looked into the matter at her request, and found Ms. Davis had been confused with another actress with the same name.
The meeting was the beginning of a three year courtship that led to the Nancy Davis marrying Ronald Reagan March 4, 1952.
Ronald Reagan was elected as governor of California in 1967 with Nancy at his side. After he left the governorship in 1975, he pursued his first bid for the presidency with Nancy's encouragement.
He eventually won the presidency in 1980, and served the country until January 1989. During his first term, an assassination attempt nearly ended his life, and with the help of Mrs. Reagan, he recovered and served a second term.
During her years as First Lady, Mrs. Reagan led a campaign against drug abuse that was launched when a high school girl asked her what to do when offered drugs. "Just say no," Mrs. Reagan said, and it became a slogan that was picked up nationwide.
Mrs. Reagan was very protective of her husband's welfare after the assassination attempt, and the two remained very close throughout the years at the White House, with Nancy as his confidante.
The Reagans had two children together and raised two others from Ronald Reagan's first marriage.
Services are scheduled near the Reagan Presidential Library in Palo Alto California later this week, where she will be laid to rest next to her husband.
