A Story of Nancy Reagan

 

From How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life, a story of Nancy Reagan that dates to 1966, when her husband first ran for governor of California:

Then a college sophomore, Dana Rohrabacher [a fellow speechwriter in the Reagan White House, now the longtime congressman from Huntington Beach] found himself devoting dozens of hours each week to Youth for Reagan. Unfortunately, as Dana soon learned, Youth for Reagan suffered from infighting between two factions, the Young Republicans and the Young Americans for Freedom. “It was the old story in the conservative movement,” Dana had said, telling me the story. “The right couldn’t stand the far right.”

71edf578a64824b0f0b73eead5bca04dTired of the infighting, the Reagan campaign announced that Youth for Reagan would be disbanded. Dana felt beside himself. He’d already organized nearly a hundred college kids to walk precincts for Reagan. How could he tell them the campaign no longer wanted them to have an organization of their own? Dana decided to have a talk with the one person he knew could reverse the campaign’s decision, Ronald Reagan.

How did a college kid get an appointment with a gubernatorial candidate? He didn’t. He talked a friend into joining him, borrowed a couple of sleeping bags, then camped out in the candidate’s back yard.

At seven the next morning, the back door of the candidate’s house swung open. Nancy Reagan appeared. “Who are you?” she asked. “What are you doing in my backyard?” Dana explained himself, assuring Mrs. Reagan that he and his friend would only need to talk to her husband for a couple of minutes. “I know him,” Mrs. Reagan replied. “He won’t spend a couple of minutes with you. He’ll spend fifteen or twenty. Then he’ll either skip his breakfast or run late for his meetings all day.” Mrs. Reagan promised to do what she could about Youth for Reagan herself, speaking to the campaign manager. Then she politely but firmly asked Dana and his friend to leave.

The two students picked up their sleeping bags, walked around to the front of the house, then began trudging down the long driveway to the street, dejected. Suddenly they heard footsteps. Turning, they saw Ronald Reagan pelting down the driveway to catch them. His shirttail was untucked. Shaving cream covered half his face. When he reached them Reagan said, “If you can spend the night on my back lawn, I can spend a few minutes talking with you. Now, what’s the problem?” Youth for Reagan was never disbanded.

The moral of Dana’s story, I’d thought at first, was simple. Whereas Nancy Reagan could prove hard and unattractive, Ronald Reagan always proved soft and winsome. But when I tried looking at the story not from Dana’s point of view but from that of Reagan himself, the story got a little more complicated.

“How long did Reagan spend talking to the two of you in the driveway?” I asked Dana, going over the story with him once again.

“I don’t know. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes?”

“So Mrs. Reagan was right when she said he’d spend a lot of time with you?”

“Sure she was right. She said she knew her husband, and she did.”

Nancy Reagan, I saw, had created a situation in which her husband simply could not lose. If Reagan had let Dana and his friend disappear down the driveway, he would have been able to eat his breakfast and remain on time for his meetings. That would have been good. In running down the driveway after them instead, Reagan had been able to look like a hero to a couple of kids who would then tell the story to all their friends. That was even better. Nancy Reagan? She wasn’t going to look very good either way. She was an intelligent woman. She must have known that. But she hadn’t cared. If doing so helped her husband, she’d play the heavy….

“Look,” Clark Judge [another member of the speechwriting shop] said one day, making an observation I thought good enough to record in my journal, “when you’re President of the United States you’ve got to check up on everybody who walks through your door to make sure they’re not trying to take advantage of you, you’ve got to keep an eye on your own staff to make sure they’re always putting your interests first, and you’ve got to worry about a thousand details, from the menus at state dinners to the scene you want on the cover of next year’s Christmas card.

“Reagan just isn’t temperamentally suited to handle all that. His wife is. So she helps him and protects him. Who cares if she’s hard on the people around him? I mean, really, from the vantage point of history, who cares? She takes care of him—and then he goes out and takes care of the Soviet Union.”

Without the help and support of Nancy, Ronald Reagan would never have become president. And if he had never become president, the history of this country and the world itself would have been different, and poorer. She was a grand lady–and a tough, intelligent, determined wife–and we all owe her a lot.

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  1. Paddy Siochain Member
    Paddy Siochain
    @PaddySiochain

    Ar dheis De go raibh an anaim. May she rest in peace.

    • #1
  2. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    That really helps me see her in a better light, thank you.

    • #2
  3. derek Inactive
    derek
    @user_82953

    I know a couple like that. He is warm, kind, very capable at whatever he does, and would have his life consumed by the needs of others. She comes across as prickly, but creates room for them to do good. They raised foster children who became productive members of society, employed people, were stalwart foundational members of the community. Both were better people as a result of the other.

    • #3
  4. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    Thank you for sharing this.

    • #4
  5. Scott R Member
    Scott R
    @ScottR

    I’m on my phone so I can’t link it here, but there’s a positively beautiful Valentine’s letter from Reagan to Nancy from 1960 that captures it all.

    If anybody’s so inclined, it would be great if it could be posted here.

    • #5
  6. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    The best marriages are partnerships of strength and trust. So beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

    • #6
  7. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    Scott R:I’m on my phone so I can’t link it here, but there’s a positively beautiful Valentine’s letter from Reagan to Nancy from 1960 that captures it all.

    If anybody’s so inclined, it would be great if it could be posted here.

    This one?

    There’s also this one from 1977.

    Eric Hines

    • #7
  8. FightinInPhilly Coolidge
    FightinInPhilly
    @FightinInPhilly

    Great insight- thanks Peter.

    • #8
  9. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    I look back on my life and it’s landmarks. My marriage and children, and now two grandchildren comes first.

    My parents who have passed away.

    Watching men walk on the moon and seeing the tears welling up in my dad’s eyes as he watched those images on T.V.  He was child of the Depression and in combat as an eighteen year-old in the Pacific.

    Watching the Berlin Wall that was being demolished by ordinary citizens. I never thought I would see that in my life time

    Tears of my own when I watched the procession that carried Ronald Reagan’s body in Simi Valley. I was amazed at the number of people that turned out to pay their respects.

    Margaret Thatcher’s eulogy of Ronald Reagan.

    The thousands upon thousands that poured into the Vatican applauding Pope John Paul II as he lay dying in the Papal apartments. Applauding a life well lived, their hearts may have been aching, but they were going to bring joy to him.

    Nancy Reagan was the gatekeeper. She was looking out for her husband, a man that on occasion would send a check to someone after reading a letter sent to the White House pleading for his help.

    May she rest in peace, separated from her husband that she loved so much. Now reunited with him. I have some tears, but I do feel like applauding for a life well lived.

    • #9
  10. Scott R Member
    Scott R
    @ScottR

    Yep, Eric, that’s the one. Thx!

    • #10
  11. Sash Member
    Sash
    @Sash

    I visited the Reagan library a couple of months ago.  I wonder if I expect so much of a President because Reagan was so good, and made it look easy.  Or Nancy made it look easy.

    Maybe we should be looking at the wife before the husband, maybe we are looking at the wrong things.

    • #11
  12. Jack Dunphy Member
    Jack Dunphy
    @JackDunphy

    Wonderful.  Thank you, Peter.

    • #12
  13. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    anonymous:As we celebrate the life of this great lady, let us not forget how many other couples have achieved so much because they complemented one another so well. Their achievements may not be written in history books as those of the Reagans so deservedly are, but their lives, and the lives of those they touched, are enriched because they found one another.

    A life shared is a life enriched. The Reagans are an inspiration to young people embarking upon this adventure.

    This is true…most fabulously complementary and productive couples go unnoticed. But they make contributions to those whose lives they directly touch.

    No one knows the complete value of the seeds our lives drop into others, that go on to bear fruit.

    • #13
  14. David Sussman Member
    David Sussman
    @DaveSussman

    Beautiful Peter. Thank you.

    Just returned from paying respects. Library is closed preparing for funeral but theres a makeshift memorial at the entrance.

    #AndThenThereWasNancy

    IMG_20160306_171701

    • #14
  15. J Ro Member
    J Ro
    @JRo

    Reagan White House: First Lady buys nice porcelain for the White House when she moves in.

    Clinton White House: First Lady takes nice porcelain from the White House when she moves out.

    • #15
  16. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    anonymous:A life shared is a life enriched. The Reagans are an inspiration to young people embarking upon this adventure.

    Beautiful, John.

    • #16
  17. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    It doesn’t surprise me at all. Thank you, Peter.

    • #17
  18. Ned Vaughn Inactive
    Ned Vaughn
    @NedVaughn

    A marvelous story, Peter… thank you for sharing it. Here’s something I just posted to Facebook:

    I wanted to post a late day remembrance of the indomitable Nancy Reagan. I had the great pleasure of meeting her at the Reagan Library and though our introduction was brief, her smile was bright and her manner so warm. One thing you might not know about the legendary First Lady is that she served for nearly a decade as a member of the Screen Actors Guild board of directors, during which time she married its president. Now *that* is what you call a successful first run! While my own service as vice president of SAG began over 50 years later, I’ve always loved sharing a bit of history with those two most remarkable Americans. Rest in peace, Mrs. Reagan.

    In an unsurprising flood of glowing tributes, here’s one I really enjoyed from a source you might not have expected.

    Goodbye for Now, Dear Nancy

    At 8:50 this Sunday morning I received a call to tell me I’d just lost a friend. Nancy Reagan had died. “You lost a ‘friend?'” a second friend exclaime…

    • #18
  19. Tim Groseclose Member
    Tim Groseclose
    @TimGroseclose

    I like the second story but LOVE the first.  It shows that Nancy was not just a loving wife but also a brilliant strategist and tactician.  Secretly outsmarted us all, including Dana Rohrabacher.  Wow, I used to think Peyton Manning was good at audibles.

    • #19
  20. Suzanne Johnson Inactive
    Suzanne Johnson
    @SuzanneJohnson

    Peter,

    You were the first person I thought of when the news broke.  You wrote of their love and devotion years ago.  It is heartwarming to read this again.

    • #20
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