“When people try to crown Nancy Reagan as some champion of the AIDS epidemic, I always say, ‘Tell her friend Rock Hudson that, ‘” activist and TV host Scott Nevins said in an email.
Advertisement
During that late 1983 visit, Mr. T even took a turn as Santa Claus – with the first lady gamely sitting in his lap for a memorable photo opp.
The flags will be lowered immediately and remain there till sunset on the day Mrs. Reagan is buried beside her husband, President Ronald Reagan, at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
In announcing his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 1994, Reagan wrote, “I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience”.
“He was lucky to have her, and I’m sure he would be the first to acknowledge that, so she will be missed”, Obama said. She was 94 years old.
The cause of death was congestive heart failure, said a spokeswoman for the Reagan presidential library. She was not able to attend the Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library in September 2015 because of her health, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Below, take a look at Reagan’s life over the years.
“If you’ve got a jolly commanding officer, you better have one tough executive officer who is your No. 2”, said Wilkinson.
Mrs. Reagan carried that charge through the rest of her days.
Ronald Reagan, the nation’s 40th president, died on June 5, 2004, at age 93. And then, of course, a tremendous presidency, very elegant first lady.
In 2011, PBS aired a documentary that addressed Nancy Reagan’s role in the AIDS crisis.
Advertisement
Anne Frances Robbins, nicknamed Nancy, was born on July 6, 1921, in New York City. She nudged him to publicly accept responsibility for the arms-for-hostages scandal. She was criticized for financing these pet projects with donations from millionaires who might seek influence with the government, and for accepting gifts and loans of dresses worth thousands of dollars from top designers. Her name appeared on a list of people thought to have been Communist sympathizers in 1949. She also launched the “Just say no” anti-drugs campaign and advocated for stem-cell research later in life. According to BuzzFeed, Mrs. Reagan decided the White House should not intervene on Hudson’s behalf after his publicist requested help in getting Hudson transferred from the American Hospital in Paris to a French military hospital where more advanced treatment was available.
