THEY LIVED HERE – NANCY REAGAN

Ronald Reagan was the first Hollywood star to lead this country. As is often the case, behind every great man there is a great woman and Nancy Davis Reagan was exactly that. Though her life was bright in its own sense, she spent most of her time in her husband's shadow. Interestingly enough, this petite, brown haired, hazel-eyed former first lady was born in Flushing.
Born on July 6, 1921 at Sloane Hospital in Flushing, Reagan was named Anne Frances Robbins. The family lived at 149-14 Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing. She was the only child to Kenneth Seymour Robbins and actress Edith Luckett. Robbins and Luckett had a rocky relationship and filed for divorce in 1928. Reagan was looked after by her aunt and uncle as her mother worked at various acting jobs around the country to support them. In 1929 however, Luckett married a neurosurgeon - Dr. Loyal Davis.
Dr. Davis adopted Reagan as his own daughter and the two got along splendidly. Reagan grew up in Chicago with Dr. Davis and her younger stepbrother Richard. She attended Girls' Latin School and later Smith College in Massachusetts, where she majored in theatre. After graduating from Smith, Reagan adopted the stage name Nancy Davis.
After touring with a road company early in her career, Reagan scored a part in a Broadway musical called Lute Song. It was to be her only Broadway show however, she would later sign a film contract with MGM Studios. Reagan appeared in eleven feature films from 1949 to1956. In 1949, she played a minor role in The Doctor and the Girl, starring with leading man Glenn Ford. In the 1957 movie, Hellcats of the Navy, Reagan shared the screen for the first and only time with her husband Ronald.
The couple met in 1951 because of a discrepancy with her name. Another actress with the same name had appeared on the Hollywood blacklist of suspected Communist Party members or sympathizers and Reagan needed to clear it up so she could continue her employment as a SAG actress.
She was told to contact Ronald to help get her name off the list. When the two met, they hit it off immediately. They were married the following year on March 4, 1952 in San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. Nancy always said, &#8220My life began when I married my husband.”
As first lady of California and eventually of America, Reagan often attracted controversy. With her refined taste, she was perceived as detached from the ordinary American public. Early in her husband's presidency, she spent $200,000 on china for the White House, at a time when the nation was in a recession.
She did set the trends with her fashion sense and as the quintessential conservative woman, which many women adopted at that time. She is also remembered for her involvement in the &#8220Just Say No” campaign against adolescent drug use.
Reagan published her memoirs, My Turn, in 1989. She promptly established The Nancy Reagan Foundation to support educational drug prevention after-school programs. She was devastated when her husband lost his battle with Alzheimer's disease on June 5, 2004. She would say, &#8220A woman's real happiness and real fulfillment come from within the home with her husband and children.”
Reagan now resides in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, CA. She continues her political involvement and has tried to convince President Bush to support stem cell research in hopes of finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease.