Former first lady Nancy Reagan, who as an aspiring actress married affable leading man Ronald Reagan, and then offered her unfailing support and Hollywood style as his unlikely political career took them to the Sacramento's governor's mansion and then all the way to the White House, has died. She was 94.
A family spokesperson told CBS that Reagan died Sunday in her Los Angeles home of congestive heart failure.
Reagan had a reputation as her husband's greatest protector, whether regarding publicity or public policy, but she won public admiration as she took on the role of caregiver as he faced the onset of Alzheimer's disease in the last 10 years of his life.
Nancy Davis was an actress under contract with MGM in 1949 when she first met Reagan, then president of the Screen Actors Guild, and asked for his help in clearing her name after it mistakenly appeared on a list of Communist sympathizers in Hollywood. Over dinner, they hit it off and started dating, but it was several years before Reagan, recently divorced from actress Jane Wyman, would be ready to tie the knot again.
They did in 1952, and the new Mrs. Reagan gave birth to a daughter, Patricia, or Patti, later that year and six years later to a son, Ron. Although she hadn't intended to continue acting, her husband's film career was on the wane and, as she later described it, "We needed the money."
She reluctantly took a part in the low-budget "Donovan's Brain," "Crash Landing" and "Hellcats of the Navy," the last of which was the only film in which she appeared with her husband.
By the time "Hellcats" was released in 1957, Ronald Reagan had taken on a lucrative gig as celebrity spokesman for General Electric and host of its weekly anthology "G.E. True Theater," in which he occasionally acted with Nancy. This career turn would form the basis for his plunge into politics.