Photos Captured Nancy, Ronald Reagan's Exquisite Love

"Marriage is never 50-50," the former First Lady once said.
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 6, 2016 3:10 PM CST
Photos Captured Nancy, Ronald Reagan's Exquisite Love
In this July 18, 1985, file photo, President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, wave from windows of his hospital room at the Navy Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.   (AP Photo/Scott Stewart, File)

Nancy Reagan's death has inspired a flow of quotes by and about the former First Lady, whose marriage to President Ronald Reagan endured for 52 years until his death in 2004. Among the most memorable quotes:

  • "I've been asked over and over again if there is a secret to staying married for this long and I'd have to say there isn't one," she said before their 50th wedding anniversary, per the Houston Chronicle (which has a great collection of Ronald & Nancy photos). "Marriage is never 50-50. One of you is always giving more, always compromising."
  • "Nancy Reagan was as intimate and integral to Ronald Reagan's success as any political spouse has ever been," says NPR news editor Ron Elving on NPR. "She really set a new standard. She was very largely responsible for his success in politics."
  • Nancy was well-known for her "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign, USA Today recalls. How did it happen? "A little girl raised her hand and said, 'Mrs. Reagan, what do you do if somebody offers you drugs?'" Nancy said of a visit with schoolchildren in Oakland. "And I said, 'Well, you just say no.' And there it was born."
  • "The first year [in the White House] was a terrible year," she told Time in 1985. "That year is almost wiped out for me." She added that "having a goal is very important I think [and] you have to let a lot of things roll off your back."
  • "Later, in her long goodbye with President Reagan, she became a voice on behalf of millions of families going through the depleting, aching reality of Alzheimer's, and took on a new role, as advocate, on behalf of treatments that hold the potential and the promise to improve and save lives," says President Obama, per CNN.
(More Nancy Reagan stories.)

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