The former first lady Nancy Reagan has died at 94

His best known project as first lady was the campaign "Just Say No" to help children and teens stay away from drugs.

When she entered the White House in 1981, the former Hollywood actress partial designer dresses and expensive porcelain was widely dismissed as a pre-feminist retreat, occupies just fashion, decor and entertaining. By the time he moved eight years later, Mrs. Reagan was fending off accusations that she was a behind the scenes "dragon lady" exercise power without control over the Reagan administration - and do so on the basis of astrology to boot.

Throughout it maintained that their only mission was to back his "Ronnie" and strengthen his presidency.

Mrs. Reagan took that position for the rest of his days. She served as a full-time caregiver as the memory of her husband Alzheimer melted. After his death in June 2004 was devoted to build his legacy, especially his presidential library in California, where he had served as governor.

She also defended Alzheimer's patients, raising millions of dollars for research and breaking with other conservative Republicans to advocate for stem cell studies. His dignity and perseverance in these roles post-White House helped soften public perceptions of voluble former first lady.

mutual devotion Reagan 'more than 52 years of marriage was legendary. They were holding hands forever. He watched his political speeches with a look of such constant adoration that "look" was called. He calls her "mom" and wrote a life of love welling notes. She saved these letters, published as a book, and found a comfort when he could no longer remember her.

In announcing his diagnosis of Alzheimer in 1994, Reagan wrote: "I just wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience." Ten years later, when his body lay in state at the US Capitol, Mrs. Reagan and stroked gently he kissed the flag-draped coffin.

As the first lady newcomer, Mrs. Reagan raised more than $ 800,000 from private donors to rebuild the family rooms of the White House and buy a set $ 200,000 of China edged in red, the color of your signature. She was criticized for financing these pet projects with donations from millionaires who try to influence in the government, and by accepting gifts and loans dresses worth thousands of dollars from top designers. His lavish lifestyle - amid a recession and cut spending her husband's administration in the needy - inspired the mocking nickname "Queen Nancy."

But Mrs. Reagan admirers credited with the restoration of grace and elegance to the White House after the austerity of the Carter years.

Its substantial influence within the White House came to light gradually in the second term of her husband.

Despite a dispute between the first lady and the chief of staff, Donald Regan had spilled into the open, the president dismissed reports that it was his wife who has Regean fired. "The idea that she is involved in government decisions and so on and all this, and being a kind of dragon lady - there's nothing like that, 'a visibly angry Reagan told reporters.

But Mrs. Reagan herself and others initiated after confirmed their role in capturing support the removal of Regean and persuade the president had to be done because of the Iran-Contra scandal which broke out under the supervision of Reagan.

He delved into policy issues, too. He urged Reagan to finally break his long silence about the AIDS crisis. She elbowed him to publicly accept responsibility for the scandal of arms for hostages. And he worked to reinforce those advisers urging him to thaw US relations with the Soviet Union, over the objections of hawks "evil empire" of the administration.

Near the end of the Reagan presidency, former chief of staff Regan took revenge with a memoir that reveals that the first lady routinely consulted an astrologer San Francisco to guide the president's agenda. Mrs. Reagan, who had an interest for a long time in horoscopes ago, said she used forecasts only astrologer hope to predict the safest time for her husband to venture outside the White House after an assassination attempt by John Hinckley just three months into the Reagan presidency.

Anne Francis Robbins, nicknamed Nancy, was born on July 6, 1921 in New York City. His parents separated shortly after his birth and his mother, the actress Edith Luckett film and theater, set off. Nancy was raised by an aunt until 1929, when his mother married Dr. Loyal Davis, a wealthy Chicago neurosurgeon who gave his name Nancy and the house of a socialite. He majored in theater at Smith College and found work on stage with the help of his mother's connections.

In 1949, MGM signed 5 feet 4, goggle-eyed brunette Nancy Davis to a film contract. She was cast mostly as a loyal housewife and mother house. She played a key role in "The next voice you hear ..." a drama about an unusual family who hears God's voice on the radio. In "Donovan's Brain", she played the wife of a scientist who has disembodied gray matter.

She met Ronald Reagan in 1950, when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild and she was looking for help with a problem: His name had been mistakenly included in a published list of suspected communist sympathizers. They discussed it over dinner, and she wrote later that he realized that the first blind date "that was all I wanted."

two years later they married, on March 4, 1952. Daughter Patti was born in October of that year and son Ron Reagan followed in 1958 and had a daughter, Maureen, and an adopted son, Michael, from his marriage to actress Jane Wyman. (Later, public spats and breaches with their older children would become a frequent source of embarrassment for Mrs. Reagan).

She was thrust into political life when her husband ran for governor of California in 1966 and won. It was found that a business surprisingly rough.

"The films were Custard compared with politics," said Mrs. Reagan

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