Nancy Reagan, who died Sunday at the age of 94, lived a life that took her from Hollywood to the White House and was later marked by her advocacy on behalf of Alzheimer's research.
Here are five things to know about the former first lady:
Photos: Nancy Reagan 1921- 2016
Film career
The former Nancy Davis signed a seven-year contract with MGM in 1949. She'd go on to make 11 films. Her last role, in 1957's Hellcats of the Navy, was also the only film in which she appeared with her husband. Hellcats, according to IMDB, depicts "the daring exploits of a submarine commander whose mission is to chart the minefields in the waters of Japan during" World War II. She played a nurse, who was a love interest of Reagan's character.
While Nancy Reagan was an ardent defender of her husband's legacy as president, she was less so of her film career. In her 1989 memoir, My Turn, she says most of her 11 movies are "best forgotten." She did single out a few of her roles in My Turn as standing out above the rest, though, including 1951's Night into Morning, which she called "my best."
How they met
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan would forge one of the most famous partnerships in American political history, but it was during their acting careers when they first met. Their initial romance began when Ronald Reagan, who was then president of the Screen Actors Guild, was contacted after Nancy Davis' name was included in a 1949 story that made it appear she was sympathetic to blacklisted screenwriters (it turns out it was another Nancy Davis). The couple would marry on March 4, 1952.
"My life didn't really begin until I met Ronnie," she was fond of saying.
Her first tenure as a first lady
Ronald Reagan's first foray into elective office came in 1966, when he was elected governor of California. He would go on to serve two terms, leaving office in 1975. His tenure in Sacramento coincided with the peak of the Vietnam War, and Nancy Reagan made working with returning veterans central to her role as the state's first lady. She visited and worked with returning wounded veterans and and was involved in efforts relating to prisoners of war and solders missing in action.
The Reagan Foundation website recounts one moment at a dinner organized by Nancy Reagan for returning POWs where two solders, who'd been held captive in adjoining cells and had formed a close friendship, met for the first time and embraced after hearing their names called out.
In 'just say no,' a legacy takes shape
If assisting Vietnam veterans was the cornerstone of her tenure as California's first lady, combatting drug abuse would emerge as her calling once the Reagans came to the White House.
The famous slogan — "just say no" — emerged from a meeting she'd had with children, according to the Reagan Library. After a young girl asked her what she should do if offered drugs, the first lady, in her telling, responded: "I said, ’Well, you just say no.’ And there it was born.”
By the time her husband left office, more than 12,000 "just say no" clubs had formed across the globe, according to the library.
Alzheimer's activism
In November 1994, Ronald Reagan revealed to the world in a letter that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, writing that he wished he "could spare Nancy from this painful experience."
Nancy Reagan would become a leading activist for Alzheimer's research, and her advocacy at one point even brought her at odds with a policy of one of her husband's Republican successors, George W. Bush. In 2001, Bush announced that he was limiting the use of federal funds for stem cell research. Reports emerged of her disappointment at Bush's decision. A 2002 New York Times article reported that she expressed concerns to Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, while at a White House dinner to honor her. However, the story notes: "Her friends say it is unlikely she would have breached etiquette by raising the issue with Mr. Bush while a guest in his house."
