The Triumph of Nancy Reagan

by Karen Tumulty

  back taxes he had deferred during World War II: ibid.

  child support: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 105.

  “I could get work… at a standstill”: ibid.

  “a professional kiss of death… living room for nothing”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, loc. 1719 of 12608, Kindle.

  actor and actress who go into ranching: Morris, Dutch, 295.

  “You must be kidding!”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 248.

  Prisoner of War: Edmund Morris, Dutch, 754n, disputes that and says he made $5,500 a week for that movie.

  conceive a child, or get a divorce: Colacello, Ronnie & Nancy, 255–57.

  “This is a day… get on with it, then”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 249.

  showgirls in feathered headdresses: “Ronald Reagan Performing in Las Vegas,” photo, January 1, 1954, available at Getty Images, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/reagan-plays-vegas-in-1954-los-angeles-early-in-1954-when-news-photo/515138960.

  “Ronnie could have gone… at home with our housekeeper”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 106.

  “I never got bored”: Nancy Reagan, I Love You, Ronnie, 41.

  “I hope I never have to sink this low again”: Ed Koch, “Nevada Was a Place of Reflection and Recreation for Nancy, Ronald Reagan,” Las Vegas Sun online, March 6, 2016, https://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/mar/06/nevada-was-a-place-of-reflection-and-recreation-fo.

  When aides cleaned out… tucked inside: Michael Deaver, interview, September 12, 2002, Presidential Oral Histories, Ronald Reagan Presidency, Miller Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/michael-deaver-oral-history-deputy-chief-staff.

  “I had been tagged… ‘mashed potato’ circuit”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, p. 251.

  an instant hit… twenty-five million viewers a week: Thomas Kellner, “Lights, Electricity, Action: When Ronald Reagan Hosted ‘General Electric Theater,’ ” General Electric online, last modified February 17, 2019, https://www.ge.com/reports/ronald-reagan-ge.

  “You see… all these jewels”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 187.

  Chief among them… terrified of flying: Morris, Dutch, 305.

  He sometimes gave as many as fourteen speeches… get his shoes off: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 257–61.

  “Although he wasn’t running… how to solve them”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 108.

  “At 8:04 a.m.… ‘Your wife is all right’ ”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 275.

  Nine-year-old Patti… GE Theater: “General Electric Theater, 1953–62, Nancy Reagan, Ron Patti, Davis, Ron Reagan Jr., Ronald Reagan, ‘Other Wise Man,’ December 24, 1961,” available at Everett Collection/Alamy Stock Photo, https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-general-electric-theater-1953-62-nancy-reagan-patti-davis-ron-reagan-32380600.html; Kellner, “Lights, Electricity, Action.”

  Patti rocking her doll… “just as colorful”: “1950s Ronald Reagan Lighting His Home,” YouTube, 3:13, MyFootsage.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMNAhoyde7s.

  Nancy, Patti, and Ron… “aim to keep it that way”: “Crest Commercial Featuring Nancy, Patty, and Ron Reagan Jr!,” YouTube, 1:17, spuzzlightyeartoo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqh8uRe_mzI.

  “He was easy to love… out of his sight”: Ron Reagan, My Father at 100: A Memoir (New York: Viking Penguin, 2011), 226–27.

  “What happened between arrival and departure was yelling… sing to myself to block out the sound”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 17–18.

  “a weekly, sometimes daily, event”: ibid., 21.

  “Because you upset her so much”: ibid., 38.

  “unresolved feelings about her father”… center stage in their home: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 136–37.

  “only a phase”: ibid., 136–38.

  Ron, the more easygoing”… “ ‘every time you leave’ ”: Ron Reagan, author interview, Seattle, July 23, 2017.

  “Now that I’m older… no training for”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 127.

  “When I told my parents… leave the wall intact”: Maureen Reagan, First Father, First Daughter, 132.

  “Dad was quite embarrassed… ‘haven’t gotten that far yet’ ”: ibid., 97.

  “I was flying blind… troubled and rebellious”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 132.

  new bedroom was for Ron’s nurse: Michael Reagan with Hyams, Outside Looking In, 82–83.

  “She’s too busy… invited you in?”: ibid., 74–75.

  “an illegitimate bastard… had for years”: ibid., 88–90.

  “I didn’t recognize you”: ibid., 96.

  wept over someone in the family who was not himself: ibid., 93–94.

  “Whether Mike helps buy his first car… Your Husband”: Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan, May 24, 1963, love letters file, Reagan Presidential Library.

  “a description of the new 1963 coffee pot”: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 272–73.

  “The country needs your kind of leadership”: Norman L. Stevens Jr. to Ronald Reagan, 1962, Personal Papers, Box 84, R. Reagan Letters, Reagan Presidential Library.

  “And there we were.… Ever”: Colacello, Ronnie & Nancy, 334–35.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Reagan seldom sought their collective advice… quiet space via Nancy”: Thomas C. Reed, The Reagan Enigma: 1964–1980 (Los Angeles: Figueroa Press, 2014), 193–94.

  “Our idea of a big evening… go out to the movies”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 30.

  wearing jeans at dinner: Ronald Reagan with Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 274–75.

  “The ladies of the Colleagues… she was one of them”: Leamer, Make-Believe, 190–91.

  Zipkin regularly mailed her batches… highlighted in yellow marker: Richard Johnson, Page Six, New York Post, April 2, 1987.

  “I’d hire those sons of bitches”: Spencer, Behind the Podium, 34–35.

  “This guy could do it… this guy could make it”: ibid.

  “Nancy was in every one of the meetings… after Bill and I left”: ibid., 40.

  “You can do it.… going to get worse”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 182.

  “She’s actually a terrifically intelligent politician… sorting that out”: Spencer, Behind the Podium, 41.

  On Spencer’s first flight… that it bled: Spencer, interview by author, Palm Desert, CA, December 17, 2016.

  “I must say my emotions are wired… not just my enemies”: William, F. Buckley Jr., The Reagan I Knew (New York: Basic Books, 2008), 12.

  “And that’s how we landed”: transcript from unaired interview footage, Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.

  “It could have been all over the papers!… tearless eyes”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 91–92, 96, 100–105.

  rendered invisible for the duration of the campaign. On that, Nancy and Spencer agreed: ibid., 85. Spencer, interview by author, Palm Desert, CA, July 11, 2017.

  drafted and shipped off to Vietnam: Michael Reagan with Hyams, Outside Looking In,104–5.

  “she was livid … chewed me out for, probably, fifteen minutes”: Curtis Patrick, Reagan: What Was He Really Like?, vol. 1 (Charleston, SC: Booksurge, 2007), 281.

  “Humiliated to see herself written out… “as they see fit”: Maureen Reagan, First Father, First Daughter, 146–49.

  “The bitch is on the phone again”: Spencer, author interview, October 22, 2016.

  “Well, I hope I didn’t destroy your day”: Patrick, Reagan: What Was He Really Like? 1:281.

  “a dubious honor… working-class California”: Reed, Reagan Enigma, 29–30.

  “Frank Sinatra called me the next day.… out of the water with those folks”: Spencer, Behind the Podium, 46.

  “I had always thought… almost an anticlimax”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 112.
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br />   CHAPTER SEVEN

  Airlines had to add flights… seven thousand people who came for it: Cecilia Rasmussen, “Circumstances Sometimes Restrain Inaugurations’ Pomp,” Los Angeles Times online, January 7, 2007, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-07-me-then7-story.html.

  “My Darling First Lady”… “you’ll always have a me”: Nancy Reagan, I Love You, Ronnie, 96–97.

  But there was some consolation… meant to buy the governor’s favor on a tax bill that gave a big break to the movie industry: Nicholas M. Horrock, “Reagan Resists Financial Disclosure,” New York Times online, August 13, 1976, https://www.nytimes.com/1976/08/13/archives/reagan-resists-financial-disclosure-position-in-contrast-to-that-of.html.

  “Some legislators thought their celebrity governor… spend evenings at home”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, 232.

  “transfixed adoration… witness of the Virgin Birth”: Cannon, Ronnie and Jesse, 161.

  “Whenever I think of Nancy Reagan now… middle-class American woman’s daydream, circa 1948”: Joan Didion, “Pretty Nancy,” Saturday Evening Post, June 1, 1968, 18.

  “Would she have liked it better… before she ever met me”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 28.

  “She alienated even those who were disposed to like her… bluntly honest and undiplomatic”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, 236.

  “What do we do now?”: Morris, Dutch, 347.

  “She was still in a period of learning… she knew there had to be a change”: Stuart Spencer, interview, November 15–16, 2001, Presidential Oral Histories, Ronald Reagan Presidency, Miller Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/stuart-spencer-oral-history.

  gas chamber where Mitchell was strapped to a chair: Miles Corwin, “Last Man Executed in California: Furor over Mitchell Case Resounds 18 Years Later,” Los Angeles Times online, August 23, 1985, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-08-23-mn-24365-story.html.

  “a very uncomfortable feeling… same principle, it seems to me”: Tracy Wood, United Press International, printed in multiple newspapers in June 1967.

  Field found that more than two-thirds of Catholics supported loosening the restrictions on abortion: Lou Cannon, “California’s Abortion Law: A Road Not Taken,” Real Clear Politics, last modified April 4, 2013, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/04/04/calrnias_abortion_law_a_road_not_taken_117773-full.html.

  an influential voice as his son-in-law wavered: Cannon, Governor Reagan, 211.

  “the only time as governor or president”: ibid., 213.

  “But, honey… those things”: ibid., 237.

  “Tom’s right,” Ronnie said. “We’re going to do it”: Patrick, Reagan: What Was He Really Like?, 1:57.

  “less desirable”: ibid., 59.

  “She really, truly devoted her life to this man”… “Everyone tensed when she came into the office”: Helene von Damm, At Reagan’s Side: Twenty Years in the Political Mainstream (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 70–71.

  “a frustrated interior decorator”: Eleanor Page, “A First Lady Chooses a Nest and Feathers It,” Chicago Tribune, June 9, 1967, sec. 2, 15.

  a tomahawk hanging on the wall: Nancy Reagan, I Love You, Ronnie, 98.

  The first lady’s shouting could be heard from Ronnie’s inner office: Patrick, Reagan: What He Was Really Like?, 1:204–5.

  “no one ever tried to talk to him about her again”: Von Damm, At Reagan’s Side, 71.

  pray that it was a girl… “you get to see your wife grow up all over again”: Michael Deaver, Nancy: A Portrait of My Years with Nancy Reagan (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 32.

  “That’s my husband… real story of the budget”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 119.

  “eight solid years in the tub”: ibid.

  “She would call in and ask… extremely happy man because of that”: Kathleen Osborne, interview, April 26, 2003, Presidential Oral Histories, Ronald Reagan Presidency, Miller Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/kathleen-osborne-oral-history.

  “One thing about Nancy… hollered at or get the silent treatment”: Lyn Nofziger. Nofziger (Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 1992), 300.

  “looked like a used sleeping bag”: Morris, Dutch, 347.

  “We knew in our minds… hanky panky”: Nofziger, Nofziger, 77.

  “ ‘Why doesn’t someone do something about Phil?’ ” ibid., 79.

  “She’d use that fifteen minutes to call me… phoned to make her position very clear”: William P. Clark, interview, August 17, 2003, Presidential Oral Histories, Ronald Reagan Presidency, Miller Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/william-p-clark-oral-history.

  “In taking the job nobody else wanted… stumbled upon my niche”: Deaver, Nancy, 46.

  “Mike was never afraid… when he thought he was wrong”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 201.

  When the owner of the house decided… been paying in rent: United Press International, “Reagan, Unruh in a Battle,” Santa Rosa (CA) Press-Democrat, January 28, 1970, 10.

  Much of that bounty… Queen Anne–style chairs: Robin Orr, “The Social Circle: The Antiques Belong to California,” Oakland Tribune, January 30. 1970.

  “All of a sudden it came to both of us… We both felt that way about it”: Chris Wallace, First Lady, 120.

  Sinatra dedicated… beaming first lady in the front row: United Press International, “Star-Studded Cast at Reagan’s Inauguration,” Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA), January 5, 1971, 16.

  (Ronnie had known… and had said so): Cannon, Governor Reagan, 213–14.

  In a 1970 interview… “so doped up they don’t know what they are doing?”: Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, “Nancy Reagan Opposes Drugs, Women’s Lib, Unrestricted Abortions,” Sacramento (CA) Bee, July 10, 1970.

  “What excited me most… everyone is better off”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 116.

  “She never just flipped from bed to bed… go home and call them”: Patrick, Reagan: What Was He Really Like?, 1:220–21.

  the war that had cost them so much was not winnable: Nancy Reagan with Libby, Nancy, 187.

  “If I don’t have a chance… I’m going to pop”: ibid., 188.

  “When anyone asks… this was it”: ibid., 189.

  “Each time Reagan came across as conflicted.… and at the same time”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, 384–85.

  “I thought, ‘So this is how it ends’… we were leaving politics forever”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 122.

  Hannaford and Deaver… big money in those days: Morris, Dutch, 390.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “without a day in office, the favorite presidential candidate of Republican conservatives”: Warren Weaver Jr., “GOP Finds ’68 Outlook Brighter as It Counts Election Successes: Gain of 47 in House, 8 Governors,” New York Times online November 10, 1966, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/11/10/issue.html.

  “Lyndon Johnson is a disaster… plan for your election to the presidency”: Reed, The Reagan Enigma, 59-60.

  “Who the fuck got me into this?”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, footnote p. 260.

  “For Nancy, the convention fiasco… whatever the Gipper might be thinking”: Deaver, Nancy,” 44.

  “more misrepresented than almost anything Ronnie has ever done”: Nancy Reagan with Libby, Nancy, 163.

  “was the last thing on my mind”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, Loc 2473 of 12608. Kindle.

  “I had met with Reagan… an enigma to this day”: Reed, Reagan Enigma, 178–79.

  “The experience was good for a man… for the mood of the American voters”: Morris, Dutch, 358–59.

  “I was heartsick… nothing I could do about it”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 145.

  “Well, Dad, there’s good news”… “I must tell Nancy”: Micha
el Reagan with Hyams, Outside Looking In, 158.

  “There was genuine disappointment… without him and Nancy in the audience”: Maureen Reagan, First Father, First Daughter, 208–9.

  When he was twenty-six, Michael got married… belonged to Jane Wyman: “Michael Reagan, Governor’s Son, to Marry Miss Pamela Putnam,” New York Times online, September 22, 1970, https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/22/archives/michael-reagan-governors-son-to-marry-miss-pamela-putnam.html.

  “Some men feel their masculinity… at least once a day”: Michael Reagan with Hyams, Outside Looking In, 121–29.

  “I hated myself… they were all whores”: ibid., 129–30.

  The most awkward moment… also join the group: ibid., 145–47.

  “I needed her right then… do all those things, but I was”: Patti Davis, “How I Remember My Mother Nancy Reagan,” Time online, last modified March 10, 2016, https://time.com/4253749/patti-davis-how-i-remember-nancy-reagan.

  “It’s terrible that he took that part… going steady”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 141.

  “a very radical black girl named Eva Jefferson”: ibid., 124–27.

  “I was using her habit to support mine”: ibid., 143.

  “When Patti tried to sound important… ‘I don’t believe a word you’re saying’ ”: Richard Davis, author interview, March 5, 2017.

  “During Patti’s years with Bernie… which we just couldn’t accept”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 138.

  Maureen tried to talk Ronnie out of running… too much turmoil in the wake of Watergate: Maureen Reagan, First Father, First Daughter, 227–29.

  Ron just pouted: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 153.

  “Her questions were always the hardest… tilting at windmills?”: Deaver, Nancy, 44–45.

  “Looking back, I realize it was inevitable… with whatever he decided”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 151.

  “The astonishing thing… it doesn’t make much sense”: James Reston, “Reagan’s Theatrical Politics,” New York Times online, November 19, 1975, https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/19/archives/reagans-theatrical-politics.html.

  “I don’t think, even to this day… certain this would be a cakewalk”: Spencer, Behind the Podium, 51–60.