She then said, though, “Because of both President and Mrs. Reagan – in particularly Mrs. Reagan – we started a national conversation, when, before nobody would talk about it, nobody wanted to do anything about it'”.
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The sprawling, Spanish mission-style library is located between the Reagan’s post-White House home in the upscale Bel Air section of Los Angeles and Rancho del Cielo, the “ranch in the sky” where the Reagans spent their leisure time, sometimes on horseback, in the rugged mountains near Santa Barbara.
She went on to praise Nancy Reagan for her “very effective, low-key advocacy”.
On Friday, Hillary Clinton praised Nancy Reagan and her husband, former President Reagan, for starting a conversation about HIV/AIDS in the 1980s.
President Obama is taking heat from some conservatives for skipping Nancy Reagan’s funeral Friday, opting instead to speak at a tech festival in Austin, Texas.
In the letter, the former president wrote about how lucky he was to have so many great women in his life, especially those who were caring, fun and sentimental.
Michael Reagan took to Twitter to tell his followers of his sadness following his stepmother’s passing, saying she is “once again with the man she loved”.
President Ronald Reagan did not attend Bess Truman’s funeral in 1982 but Nancy Reagan went.
Those in attendance included First Lady Michelle Obama, Mr. T, Diane Sawyer, Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Newt Gingrich, Anjelica Huston, Chris Matthews, Gary Sinise, Larry King, Tom Selleck, Katie Couric, Wayne Newton, John Stamos, Melissa Rivers, George W. Bush and Laura Bush.
Reagan died in her sleep on Sunday afternoon at the age of 94.
Guests are arriving for Nancy Reagan’s funeral at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Throughout the week, she’s been honored and remembered by family, friends, celebrities and political dignitaries from all colors of the political spectrum.
Rain is in the forecast, but its timing is uncertain. Intimidating though could be, she added, Mrs. Reagan didn’t “let differences turn into definitions”.
The list includes two other former first ladies – Jimmy Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, and Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and now Democratic front-runner in the 2016 presidential race.
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Heavy rain had been forecast for the ceremony, and guests were ushered into a cavernous waterproof tent behind the library.
