Reagan was born in New York City. After her parents separated, she lived in Maryland with an aunt and uncle for six years. When her mother remarried in , she moved to Chicago and later was adopted by her mother's second husband. He had two children from his previous marriage to Jane Wyman , [ 1 ] and he and Nancy had two children together. Nancy Reagan was the first lady of California when her husband was governor from to , and she began to work with the Foster Grandparents Program.
Reagan became First Lady of the United States in January , following her husband's victory in the presidential election. Early in his first term, she was criticized largely due to her decisions both to replace the White House china , which had been paid for by private donations, and to accept free clothing from fashion designers. She championed opposition to recreational drug use when she founded the " Just Say No " drug awareness campaign, considered her major initiative as First Lady, although it received substantial criticism for stigmatizing poor communities affected by the crack epidemic.
More discussion of her role ensued following a revelation that she had consulted an astrologer to assist in planning the president's schedule after the attempted assassination of her husband in She generally had a strong influence on her husband and played a role in a few of his personnel and diplomatic decisions. Reagan devoted most of her time to caring for her husband, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in , until his death at the age of 93 on June 5, Reagan remained active within the Reagan Library and in politics, particularly in support of embryonic stem cell research , until her death from congestive heart failure at age 94 in Reagan gained high approval ratings in later life for her devotion to her husband in his final illness.
She was of English descent. She was the only child of Kenneth Seymour Robbins β , a farmer [ 6 ] turned car salesman who had been born into a once-well-to-do family, [ 1 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] and his actress wife, Edith Prescott Luckett β Robbins lived her first two years in Flushing, Queens , a neighborhood of New York City, in a two-story house on Roosevelt Avenue between th and th Streets.
In , her mother married Loyal Edward Davis β , a prominent conservative neurosurgeon who moved the family to Chicago. In , a young Davis had appeared as a National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis volunteer in a memorable short subject film shown in movie theaters to raise donations for the crusade against polio. The Crippler featured a sinister figure spreading over playgrounds and farms, laughing over its victims, until finally dispelled by the volunteer.
