American History

Last edited Mon Jul 16, 2018, 10:15 AM - Edit history (1)

Through her mother's marriage to Davis in 1929, Nancy's fortunes changed and she moved up in the world. The pretensions and views she is well known for were most prominent in later life in the public role as wife of Ca. Gov. Reagan, and as FLOTUS. I was in DC during eight years of her reign and can attest that she was not well regarded or seriously involved in substantive projects in contrast to First Ladies Jackie Kennedy, Ladybird Johnson, Betty Ford, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama who engaged in very worthwhile activities. Nancy is not remembered for contributing much, but she did like fashion and paling with friend Betsy Bloomingdale.~

Wiki, abbrev.: Anne Frances Robbins was born on July 6, 1921, in NY. She was the only child of Kenneth Seymour Robbins (1894–1972), a farmer turned car salesman who had been born into a once-prosperous family, and his actress wife, Edith Prescott Luckett (1896–1987). She lived her first two years in Flushing, Queens, an outer borough of New York City, in a two-story house on Roosevelt Avenue between 149th and 150th Streets. Her parents separated soon after her birth and were divorced in 1928. After their separation, her mother traveled the country to pursue acting jobs and Robbins was raised in Bethesda, Maryland, for six years by her aunt, Virginia Luckett, and uncle, Audley Gailbraith. Nancy later described longing for her mother during those years: "My favorite times were when Mother had a job in New York, and Aunt Virgie would take me by train to stay with her."

In 1929, her mother married Loyal Edward Davis (1896–1982), a prominent conservative neurosurgeon who moved the family to Chicago. Nancy and her stepfather got along very well; she later wrote that he was "a man of great integrity who exemplified old-fashioned values." He formally adopted her in 1935, and she would always refer to him as her father. At the time of the adoption, her name was legally changed to Nancy Davis. She attended the Girls' Latin School of Chicago (describing herself as an average student), graduated in 1939, and later attended Smith College in Massachusetts, where she majored in English and drama, and graduated in 1943. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Reagan