“I am a big believer that eventually everything comes back to you. You get back what you give out.”
– Nancy Reagan
February 6
President Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004 following a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, would have been 101 today. His widow, Nancy Reagan, is 90 years old and lives in the Bel-Air community in Los Angeles, CA.
The former First Lady (from 1981 to ’89) is probably best known for her “Just Say No” drug awareness campaign, which she launched after her husband took office when Ronald became the country’s 40th President.
Nancy Reagan was born as “Anne Frances Robbins” in 1921 in New York City. Her parents got divorced when she was very young, and she officially became “Nancy Davis” when her mother got re-married in 1935 to a man named Loyal Davis.
Davis graduated in 1943 from Smith College, just outside of Boston, MA. She moved to California in 1949, where she met Ronald Reagan, and the two were married in 1952.
Nancy was California’s First Lady from 1967–1975 when Ronald served as Governor. Although he lost the Republican nomination for President in ’76 to President Gerald Ford, Reagan went on to win the 1980 election, defeating President Jimmy Carter.
According to Wikipedia, Nancy Reagan was asked by a schoolgirl what to do when offered drugs and Nancy responded very simply, “Just say no.”The phrase became part of pop-culture lexicon and was eventually adopted as the name of club organizations and school anti-drug programs.
In the Fall of 1987, a routine mammogram led to the diagnosis of breast cancer, and Reagan chose to undergo a mastectomy rather than a lumpectomy. Following the surgery, there was a nationwide rise in mammograms, an example of the influence the First Lady possesses.
Her anti-drug efforts continued under the auspices of the “Nancy Reagan Foundation” after the Reagans left Washington, D.C., but after the former President was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in ’94, she devoted all her time to caring for him. Following his death in 2004, she became a vocal proponent for stem cell research because of its scientific promise in the treatment of Alzheimer’s as well as other impairments and conditions, including cancer, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, and muscle damage.
You can read more about Nancy Reagan at Biography.com.
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