His mom forever. Ron Reagan remembered his late mother, former first lady of the United States Nancy Reagan, after she died at age 94 on Sunday, March 6.
The former first son, 57, spoke to the Today show’s Matt Lauer by phone on Sunday, March 6, and opened up about his mother’s profound influence on his life, as well as her impact on his father Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
Lauer, who interviewed Ron back in 2004 after the death of President Reagan, kicked off the conversation with the same question he asked the political scion back then: “Tell me about Nancy Reagan,” he said.
“She was totally dedicated to her husband, and I know that that sounds anti-feminist, but I don’t really mean it in that way,” Ron replied. “She loved her husband more than anything in the world and I think that you could make the case that the Ronald Reagan that we came to know … would not have existed without Nancy Reagan.”
Life as first lady wasn’t always easy, political commentator Ron said. “I think that it was tough for her in the White House, because there was a lot of anger directed at my father,” Ron reflected. “My mother was more aware of the dark corners of life.”
One of those moments was the March 30, 1981, assassination attempt on President Reagan, which took place 69 days after he was sworn into the presidency.
“I don’t think she had another day during his presidency where she didn’t have some sort of fear involved and particularly, of course, when he went out in public. He meant everything to her,” Ron said. The couple luckily went on to spend many more decades together until President Reagan passed away in 2004 following a long battle with Alzheimer’s.
“She was lonely without him … She missed him terribly,” Ron recalled. “Once they had bonded together, they really were inseparable. It sounds cliché. I don’t think they spent a day apart … He wrote her letters in all his life. They were in love.”
According to CBS News, the former FLOTUS died on Sunday from congestive heart failure. Along with Ron, Nancy is also survived by her daughter, Patti Davis, and stepson Michael.
