INTRODUCTION

HER STORY

QUOTES

She used the White House as a showcase for talented young performers in the PBS television series "In Performance at the White House."

In her first year in the White House she directed a major renovation of the second- and third-floor quarters.

Ronald Reagan was a democrat when he met Nancy.  She persuaded him to join the republican party.

Her domineering manner is said to have caused frequent run-ins with her staff and earned her the title, Dragon Lady.

Following an assassination attempt on the president in 1981 she hired the services of astrologer, Joan Quigley, who charted and mapped safe times for all events including travel arrangements, speeches, debates and press conferences.

Determined to try to break Jane Wyman's record of having appeared in five movies with Ronald Reagan, Nancy accepted the film role of a promiscuous nurse in love with a submarine commander in Hellcats of the Navy. This 1957 Columbia Pictures release was to be their only feature film together, though they co-starred in four television dramas, two of which were on the General Electric Theater.

"Nancy never bought gifts for her friends," said Carlo Celoni, the former manager of Gucci in Beverly Hills. "She was not a great one for spending ... She was very careful about how she spent money. If she got a birthday present she didn't like, she'd always bring it in to us and we'd credit it to her account for when she wanted to buy something for herself. We did that a lot for her."

The woman she most admired in the world was the soignée wife of the founder, president and chief executive officer of Diners Club. "Betsy Bloomingdale was her idol, her goddess," said journalist Jody Jacobs. "She was everything Nancy wanted to be."

Nancy's gift-giving took bizarre, even eccentric turns, according to her friends, relatives and employees. They were well aware that their presents usually came from the discarded heap of free samples and rejects accumulated by the Reagans over the years.

Her stepfather, Dr. Loyal Davis, was a prominent neurosurgeon, very active in ultra-conservative politics. Nancy says she has his hands.