foundation. thank you roger for hosting us for this opportunity to reflect our panel. there's a series of panels coming today and and jim thank you for seeing it up. actually, i think you did also panels. and so what we're going to try and fill in some anecdotes here to capitalize on public gym said about just how smart mrs. reagan was her ambitions or four her husband and her husband's legacy and the role that she may be played in the country. and for the world so our focus will be on the legacy. we have a wonderful panel convert them introduced and our job is to try and provide a framework of what it's like to serve as a first lady what the role entails. the compacted of them what they've accomplished how it's viewed over your time in office. and then also when they leave and that's the title of our panel. first lady mrs. reagan adore microphones not work. did you get any of that? did you hear any of that? okay good because i thought it was pretty good. stuff and shattered bye everyone, but i'd like to start with you nancy on my far. right and first of all nancy and i are co-founders of a new association that studies first ladies first. ladies association for research and education and nancy's role in the archives. and of course working with the reagans and establishing their library. i wanted to ask you mrs. reagan. she had a rough start. we're gonna launch into right into her years as first lady. can you talk about the environment that she faced when she came in to the white house? i can first i would like to say thank you to the ronald reagan presidential foundation and institute for hosting us today and for celebrating nancy reagan mrs. reagan had a terrible first year and it was a variety of things certainly the attempted assassination of her husband made her much more cautious. she was already a cautious woman the media seem to hit her on everything she trying to do whether it was white house restoration, china. dresses a lot of things the previous first ladies had gotten compliments for she was getting criticized for and i think there's a very telling comment that catherine graham. they then owner of the washington post told her years later and catherine was definitely a liberal democrat and she came to her defense pointing out that the most scorching articles about her had been written by younger women who were caught up in the feminist movement. they just couldn't identify who you were they couldn't i represent you represented everything they were rebelling against so i think that is one ingredient when you think about it a lot of the very negative articles whereby women unfortunately women often criticize women and they had a model the first lady sometimes is called the mirror of society or the leader of society. she really wanted to be nancy reagan and be her own leader, and she wasn't fitting into the societal model and i think that had a lot to do it. she herself said but i found out the hard way that nothing prepares you for being first lady. so she was surprised because she had come from california from eight years since the first lady she'd been in public life. she'd been in hollywood. she hadn't been in washington and those of us that live in washington society. it's very different from the california world. and she helen thomas and a long time ap reporter told her you will have up. i a car told her you will have no privacy and nancy reagan. naively she said later on in her memoir, but helen was wrong, but she found out there was no part of her life that she really did have any privacy, but let's look at it. just real quick. she was criticized for white house restoration, even though she wanted the white house to be a showplace the designer clothes. she wore even though she was growing them and she looked beautiful in them and there were other fashion icons this first ladies that were complimented on what they were the new china set, which was purchased by a private foundation and even amazingly to me. she was criticized for her marriage with ronald reagan because nobody thought they could be that adoring and close to each other. so it must go be a fake the song. so who was she defended by she was defended by women women like catherine graham, and i'm just gonna say this very quickly on the the white house. china margaret. truman said, i think it's too bad about this hassle over her doing something. she should have have done. it's really ridiculous. ask for mixing a place settings. all i can say is it looks just awful when the president and first lady have the state dinner the china should match. jackie kennedy when a nasus when mrs. reagan got criticized for essentially looking lovely and wearing designer clothes and called her with sympathy and said all of this will pass but it might be a good idea to quit reading the papers for a while. so, i think it's interesting that mrs. reagan came in and the harsh criticism came from a younger generation of women, and she was also defended by a woman who had been in her place before. thank you nancy. that's it. great way to frame and before we get to the turning point, which jim had mentioned about the the grid iron. i wanted to ask you doug if i could noted presidential historian you spent a lot of time reading the diaries you're the editor of the diaries you spent time with mrs. reagan want to talk with you later about the legacy and vision that that she had for the library, but i wanted to know if i could pick up on the mention of jackie kennedy contacting mrs. reagan. you tell us a little bit about the relationship because i think that was surprising to me the kennedy reagan relationship. well, it's just a joy to be here. i consider this a party happy birthday to nancy reagan somebody that we all love and admire and nancy reagan is a great american and and an excellent first lady when i before i just get to jackie can't i could say when i think right now about knowing mrs. reagan, it's her eyes, and it's the amount of expression she could convey in them. she could look at you and speak words and and sometimes it would go both ways. you could feel those sort of a sense of disapproval or you could see in her eyes incredible approval and that was part of her intelligence. which was unbelievably strong. she's one of the smartest people you can meet and understanding human relations. not and that is politics. but she wasn't a political person and i think that we the peter her is realizing that she was an actress but a supporting actress that became in her career. she recognized early on she wasn't going to be the maryland monroe with her generation or that or betty gable but in the hollywood world being a supporting actress was a very noble and important calling and that's what she did in hollywood and she can make other people look good and ronald reagan was a matinee idol and when they came together she was able to continue to be a supporting actress and she she did that as first lady and it's a quality of being of the way that you could convey things. she could okay. she can own the camera when she wanted to and i think that's what jackie kennedy onassis noticed dinner on jackie. kenny. onassis was deeply sympathetic to other first. ladies. there is a club we talk about ex-presidents club. there's an experts lady's club, but i think she truly admired. um, jackie kennedy the way that nancy reagan comported herself the way that she was able to defend her husband the way that she was following up on the restoration efforts that jackie kennedy had done with the white house and the fact of how hard it was to raise children in a modern political context with tv and tabloids. and so nancy reagan's mother edith was a democrat up and forgot her father dr. david was a was can you know adopt a father but what's a conservative so she could navigate both worlds and she liked the charm in the gusto of the family, she loved ted kennedy very much because he was lovable to her. he would sing songs. he would sing oh danny boy or he would joke with her. he humanized the situation with mrs. reagan and and she appreciated that and it's already be deep political history how ronald reagan would as a conservative worked across the aisle with tip o'neill ted kennedy and the rest but later and when i got to know her she was very thrilled on her birthday, which we're celebrating even it's not the date that that tech kennedy would call her and sing to her on her birthday and a lot of leading republicans didn't yeah, but some of them didn't call on her birthday and sing and he did and that meant the world to her and i think some of the advice and later years and i'm sure turn my turn over here, but she would say, um, you know, people would say what can you do to help mrs. reagan call her. she was a human and she liked the human relationships with people and didn't like to be kind of shelved. she wanted to be in the mix. something to that, um the relationship between nancy and ron reagan and the kennedys it hasn't got the attention as i'm hearing doug speak. i'm remembering the first interchange that i know of is in 1967 and reagan to debates rfk. it's not really debate their remote and it's a it was it's a group that i think oxford. it's english students. they're all marxist. it's an ambush really on the vietnam war and the students take turns calling them each war criminals and and the two men respond the best they could it's widely in reagan world. the lawyers that bobby kennedy came off this stage and barked in a profane way to his staff who got me into this. i think he's actually into this because reagan reagan killed them. well, i personally think everybody here is a reagan. i think he was actually talking about the students more than reagan, but but reagan did better than bobby in the debate, but the next year. robert kennedy is shot in california at the ambassador hotel reagan and nancy bindu many times reagan and nancy met the press there two years earlier, june 7th to 1966. and it's where they went to to meet the press when they're running for governor. and this was a shock to them. they write a letter and i say they because it's signed ron and nancy. before well bobby's wounded. he's grieviously wanted it's not known he's going to die. they send a telegram to ethel kennedy and say there's little you can say at this time. we want, you know, anything we can do for thinking of you anything we can do and then they add this poster and they offer the services of dr. davis a little davis now that has to come from nancy. so i think my own guess is from that point forward. there's this bond kennedy. ronald reagan gives its medal to jimmy carter to excuse me to kennedy that jimmy carter wouldn't give a presidential matter medal. they invite rose kennedy to the white house in 1985 ronald and nancy raised money for the kennedy library. they do these things. there is a connection between these two political families and and that's not understood. so i think that's part of it as well. exactly. i wanted you to add that. i also in the research for doing this panel. carol waller had brought to me that in 1976 when president reagan was running for president the first time that she attended an event a luncheon in palm beach and that rose kennedy attended and said and mrs. reagan was told about it and went over to say hello to her because mrs. kennedy rose. kennedy said i heard you were very nice and i wanted to meet you. so it was interesting the long history then as you said to the having john kennedy junior and caroline kennedy go to the oval office to meet with president reagan and ask his help in raising money. for the father's library. i think that was really important to know when i didn't know any of that before irish panel ability. yeah. so nancy if i can go back to you and just so let's talk about okay, we talked about the tough year. 1982 happens things start to turn the gridiron. can you tell us a little bit about that? and i think we have some photos to show well and i will start out with the quote from miss frank. she said quote it isn't often in life. that one is lucky enough to enjoy a second beginning but during one five-minute period in the spring of 1982. i would say able to make a fresh with the washington press court. how did she do it? she was invited to the gridiron dinner, which is a very inward group. it's a small select club of journalists. every spring they hold a white tie dinner for 600 people including members of congress the cabinet supreme court justices publishers and other high-level people after her terrible year in the press mrs. reagan had her press secretary. she will take have the idea of mrs. reagan's making a surprise appearance tate found out that the club was going to do a parody on mrs. reagan's interest in clothes in china and white house restoration to the tune of secondhand rose. so sheila suggested that mrs. reagan would appear in the gridiron agree and then secretly never telling the gridiron she works with nancy reagan and a speech writer for a week to the tune of second hand rose. they create a song and professional reagan does not know anything about this. and so everyone in i think it was march 27th, but everyone in the audience was unprepared when a petite woman stepped out and in bad lady costume and saying to a standing ovation, and i don't know are we going to play it because it's so neat. i am now i have a please. i'm wearing second hand clothes second hand clothes. they're quite the style in spring fashion shows. even my true trench coat with her. collar ronnie bought for 10 cents on the good second hand gowns and old hand-me-downs. the china is the only thing that's new. even though they told me i'm no longer queen. did ronnie have to buy me that new sewing machine. i'm wearing second hand clothes, i sure hope and me souls. that's excellent. thank you. thank you nancy for bringing that to us. i actually i wanted to ask carl based on that. i mean did she miss an or did that's it? sounds like a georgia bush. we're misunderstimate the press. i didn't know what's to me. depressed. okay, nancy reagan had she nancy smith mentioned that she had a tough first year. she had a tough first year in sacramento, too. yeah, and she wasn't prepared for that that deaver line that you heard about the shoe store. she that comes out of an interview. she does with chris wallace and she she says i didn't want to i didn't think he was going into politics and feed it on a shoe stores. i'd rather it was politics, but i'd have done that too. but she keeps the sacramento and she's not prepared for the press coverage. she's getting now the context there's there's two newspapers at that time in sacramento the sacramento be the afternoon paper the sacramento union san francisco chronicle cells huge these three papers, they sell a lot. yeah, this newspaper war the bees the democratic party newspaper. it's something out of another century. the union is the republican newspaper and the bees relentless the criticize and she doesn't like it and she's not used to it in the midst of this. this is all the first year. joan didion famous writer from california. there's a saturday evening post-up piece on nancy. that's really quite vicious and she was unprepared for she opened her house this woman. she brought her in she let her do a photo shoot and joe didn't paint this picture pretty nancy. i think was the headline and pretty nancy's picking clipping erodedendron and the whole point of the piece was that nancy was phony and that the smiles phony and she joined indian was accomplished writer and great writer really, but she couldn't have gottenancy more wrong. there was nothing about that piece. she didn't she blew it. she she didn't understand who she was dealing with nancy's problem in sacramento really was that she was too blunt. she was yes, too straight forward too straightforward not phony. yeah. anyway, it got the point where reagan had to say. he was canceling the bee the subscription to the bee at their east sacramento house. oh, and the first thing is they lived in east sacramento. they didn't live in the governor's and nancy said that the governor's mansion was a fire truck. well, it was it was the fire marshal had later admitted to have been anything but the state government actually with a close the thing the answer refused to let the kids live there and they moved to east sacramento reagan of course stole the reporters. look i get to be at the office. don't worry about it, but she she was she was unprepared for this kind of coverage and then it's then it's but by it's actually leaves. she's got it figured out she's doing all right with the press score and then it starts again here in washington. and and this thing about the nancy smith pointed out to it. she did exactly what jackie kennedy did jackie kennedy gets. what does she get out of a tv program? where where they will it's the greatest ratings in his like super bowl rings walking people through showing all they gave her an emmy they gave jackie and him she couldn't lionize for doing the same things that nancy didn't she was demonize. well, why is that? well, it's a few reasons, but let's start with the most obvious one the country had changed in that time. this is post watergate. this is post vietnam people don't look at the president and the first lady in automatically get warm and fuzzy anymore. in this she's a republican. she's not a democrat in the press corps. i don't think i need to be labor that with this crowd, but there's a little bit of a different standard. the other thing is there's a bad recession. just not a good look and nancy herself comes to realize this and she said in an interview after she left the white house. she was looking to actually said i wouldn't have liked myself if i seen if i could have seen this over again, and and the point is if it had been some other aid. top aid a top cabinet official chief of staff who was doing with nancy doing nancy would have fired that got make sure that person got fired sure her approval rating is half of reagan's she's hurt in the presidency. and then she does this and then i think what happens in the press corps is there's sort of a collective thought. we need to be at least fair this one she's trying maybe we should try. and she gets very active in a row doug. do you want to comment on anything? she started policies you want to talk about? that's right, you know look if we're good the big thing that's going on beyond the vietnam war and watergate are the assassination you mention or rfk, but imagine you're nancy reagan. you have the killing of john f kennedy. you have the killing of you know, martin luther king malcolm x bobby kennedy gerald ford had multiple close brushes with with assassins jimmy. murder had the killer rabbit. alright, well forget that douglas. professor but no i mean, so she's tempted fascination here in washington when the person you love is shot and you're having to go as she would say to an emergency room. i'd never thought i'd be there with with my husband and he's on a gurney and gives the famous line to her that i you know, honey. i forgot to duck an old jack dempsey boxing line, press like that. but at that point on she had to really be a protector of him not just from assassins lurking but from the the very health concerns that he had. you know, he almost perished ronald reagan and it's over a slow recovery and she had to you know monitor him on a daily basis and didn't want to be really wasn't just love for lauren. she was security concerned when he was out and about and then the fact that she has to confront breast cancer in the white house as a first lady. um, and you know get what their own health on a very serious issue while she's trying to monitor her husband's health in me. make sure very epic figure in the in the in the when you're dealing with love. it reminds me most of eleanor roosevelt after fdr got stuck with polio and then she had to at least for the first decade be there to help him and much of the presidency. i think ronald reagan and in the diaries, which i edited reagan wrote that i'm gonna start and you know, i've seen god and i'm gonna try to reduce nuclear weapons in a world and a lot of the cold war fall the the triumph the reagan and gorbachev. see is after being shot to you working on a higher calling in life than just the back and forth of politics. thank you and and nancy if i can then pick up on some of the things doug had said, okay, she faces breast cancer. she's worried about her husband's health. but even aside from all that as jim said she was constantly busy and had the staff running in many directions to focus on projects. she cared about pows was one of them that she brought from california. i wonder if you can touch on that and then i'd like to talk about the foster grandparents program a carl. i know, you know some about that as well and then the just say no program. well she she did have projects and she wanted to be a very substantive first lady. she yourself in terms of what carl and we're saying she herself realized that one of the problems she had was because of these issues that they're talking about. she pushed the press away more not she didn't bring them in so that made her harder to get good press but on one of the issues she did get good. on was the drug program and she was very committed to just say no and she was told by her husband's advisors that it wasn't maybe a good topic because drug abuse is sort of depressing and a dark topic and it could be controversial and she goes that's fine passionate about it. so she said herself that her drug after working against drugs is provided me with the most fulfilling years of my life. she also said that for what anita is saying when the pows came back so there were incidents and nancy's reagan's life that meant so much to her on the just saying no problem it just saying no drug program. it's interesting. she's in oakland and she is talking with the little girl and little girl asks her. well, what should i do if someone offers me drugs and then she reagan says just say no. so in her memoir, she's very funny in her memoir. she says we got a great name for the program and we didn't pay two hundred thousand dollars to an average height and firm to get the name, you know? okay just said no, so it was very simple her father was from the medical background in to a lot of points that have made been made here. she was very intelligent. she had a lot of medical knowledge. she created just saying no clubs all over the world by the end of her first ladyship. there were 14,000 clubs 400,000 children had been involved the center for disease control monitored nih monitor did and said teenage perception of whether you should be smoking marijuana had gone down in half. so in other words in the period of the reagan precedency, there were half of the teenagers were saying no you shouldn't be smoking. she took the issue global in 1985 hosting weister house summit for 18 first lady. she met in the same year with pope john paul to discuss the drug abuse problem and she was the first sitting first lady to address the drug problem at the united nations general assembly where she gave remarks and it's she gave remarks that her husband's advice. you didn't like she gave her marks that the united states needed to do more about their drug program and they were all advising her to say other countries needed to do more about their drug. ones, but she said no, i'll stick with my remarks and she got very positive yet. just say no. she got very positive comments from the delegates on there. and then finally joe califano who had been a special assistant to president johnson carter's secretary of health education and welfare center program was great because it had a simple and clear message on what kids and parents should do so in she showed her effectiveness and her pragmatism, which we're going to come back to and stay focus on it here time is first lady. do you want to talk about that? i lost a grandparent one thing to this is because the strict things important she she got criticized. if the crew mostly people liked it, but there was some criticism the criticism came. one criticism was well. okay, that's great. but what why are you as your administration prosecuting all these drug low-level druglers. why are we filling our prisons with people who have drug problems. now, this was richard nixon declared a war on drugs if this was unabated congress mostly run by democrats that made these mandatory minimums did all these things. these were laws jimmy carter nixon reagan. continued these policies. and we didn't really get away from it. but what nancy reagan was doing was saying, okay, but there's there's the demand side and this comes out of the dare program in los angeles lapd, which is where she came across it when when she was first lady in california, and she realized that this is a problem the demand problem. you're never just gonna this is not can't slowly be alive. probably you're never gonna be able to do it that way. and so when she went to the un what she said something that no ranking american fishes just insane. we're our insatiable demand for drugs in this country is causing this around he's helping to destabilize your countries. she she took this on and i think was a sophisticated understanding of the problem. she said we shouldn't give any quarter to you know, international drug dealers, but let's be honest about where this problem starts so that to me was a watershed. yeah, the critics were coming out of the you know, the 60s and 70s were sex drugs and rock and roll i mean rolling stone magazines created in 1967, so they they would mock nancy reagan's just say say no who didn't mock nancy reagan's just say no, we're parents who lost a loved one from from drug overdose. and that was you know gave her fortitude the letters and the mail that she received on. thank you for bringing awareness. i have a kid who's dealing with drugs and look at the opioid crisis of today in fenton all the day, you know, so you know, she it was important. you know what she did after the press all presidents have problems with the press to one degree or other offers ladies you want to ask shall obama. she loves the press if you want astrosal and carter she loved i mean it gets it gets tedious after a while. what's unique about nancy reagan is here's her nemesis, and i'm excited here and compton so wonderful that she's here today but to have you know, sam donaldson was the was seen as the the villain of the reagan years of of pointing and and yet nancy reagan later became great. i mean seriously great friends would sam donaldson, and so she didn't harbor a grudge. it's just against june. yeah, but it was just she didn't i think you know, enjoy the life in the washington fish bowl and we saw a wonderful photo with mrs. reagan with george schultz and schultz is the key to the reagan years because he wasn't looking to get famous in the style section of watching the post. you wasn't like seen it all. enhancing reagan had met every celebrity in the world in hollywood. they weren't deeply impressed. i think mother teresa and the pope impressed were ronald reagan, but they what they wanted was a confidence person and george schultz provided that and really he recently died during the covid period and he is one of the great secretaries of state in american history and the judgment that nancy had of saying listen to george schultz on things or listen to james baker on thing tells you all you need to know about her her political accurate and but i just want to springboard off of that her humor. she loved george schultz, but she knew he loved beautiful women and so at the white house dinners, and he loved to dance she would sit him with the beautiful woman. and so she arranged for him to dance with ginger rogers and she did it enough so much that george schultz. i goes to nancy reagan and says now when are you going to start setting me with handsome, man? and that's when nancy stopped doing it. well, you know, i think when we get to panel number three where the renowned social secretary gail burt will be on the panel. she might offer some additional anecdotes about mrs. reagan's entertaining and and the level of detail that she put in every event i want it. this is actually mentioning secretary schultz is a great pivot to the diplomacy and global impact of nancy reagan, which i know has been illuminated so much more in the last year, of course with karen tumulty's book, but i'd like to ask you doug and and carl if you can comment on this this focus on day taunt with the soviet union part from what many in the administration did not want the president to do go for who would like. okay, you know when you i edited reagan's diaries in also, i did a book cover notes and what you see in all of them is his love of democracy writ large. there's really believed that people of the world wanted freedom and that was part of who he truly was. i felt the worst book i've ever read on reagan was by edmond morris who did a book called dutch because he made ronald reagan a lot more complicated reagan believed a lot of the mainstream values. he had learned in illinois about the you know, the local health club and the fourth of july picnic and he really believed in our american traditions as carbon on the walls here at the city on the hill. and so this is right and they were they were a team and by 1981. i mean with the rate ronald reagan was getting beat up for saying things about the evil empire for suggesting strategic defense initiative. he was seen as a hawk who was going to you know, the spot in his resume was that can you trust ronald reagan with nuclear weapons? and yet he with nancy reagan ended up the motion making a world of safer place as margaret thatcher said with a little bit of hyperbole, but you know, ronald reagan ended the cold war without firing his single shot. she doesn't mention grenada or libya, but but nevertheless we get the idea and when you're gonna study the art of crisis management at universities where our teacher rice and i go around cuban missile crisis is very interesting because of the ex-com takes but if you're going to look at diplomacy between two super powers looking how ronald reagan handled himself and rectavik and geneva, you know on and on with mrs. reagan at his side is one of the great stories in the history of american statecraft. yeah, and i what i would answer that is that it's since since ronald reagan left the white house since the reins left the white house there have been a series of examinations of this period and so someone really good. i mean i forget his name matt like jack matlock wrote a book about reykjavik alita black wrote a book about nancy karen temple. he's got this definitive biography and in this picture emerges of nancy working with george schultz and against bill clark and you know, she's she's the one who pushes reagan to negotiate, but what i want to say about that is she wasn't pushing her husband in a direction. he didn't want to go she was pushing him where he's where she knew he wanted to go and where he indicated that his heart was in 1976 at the convention in kansas city where he loses the nomination to gerald ford. ford calls him up there. he gives the next step or any speech. he talks about armageddon and nuclear weapons and how we going to de arm disarm how the planet can survive and it can't survive by mutualisture destruction. this is his a passion of reagan's that goes back. most the time he's in public life. he has no illusions about communism which he loaths but he does he doesn't load the russian people and he and he wants to negotiate he's and he says to he keeps telling the people around him about when gorby comes in. i think this is a guy can do business with that's his phrase and nancy and schultz take him at his word on that and jim baker and they encouraged this but she was you know, it's not like she was trying to get reagan to be something he wasn't i think she was trying to get him to be what he was. she didn't always approve his methods and karen told his book. there's something i've never seen or heard before my father wrote several books about reagan and luke cannon's his name. he was here and this chair a few months ago talking about reagan. i was in where you are now anyway, right there's this stu spencer tells karen that he overheard reagan screening at and they were arguing about the evil empire speech and but right and reagan couldn't be but i kind of like it, you know, and he stayed with it, but so she's pushing him. but again, she's pushing where she thinks he wants to be but nancy you have a really every which i think it's a lot of screen. push i'm due. i will say one thing carl in nancy reagan's memoir. she said that it's not true. so so what karen tumulti said about that there was that screaming. oh man. she's yeah because i read karen's book and then nancy ready and said first said we did not we did not talk to each other that way and then has now a minute of truth to it on nancy reagan. her view. was that quote this world is so dangerous. i felt it was ridiculous for these two heavily arms superpowers to be sitting there and not talking. each other so she does push reagan to deal with gorbachev. finally. they have a soviet leader who hasn't died in office because they had a bunch of them that kept dying and she said they changed premieres like i changed shoes. yes. yeah. he was a personal thing they were doing to you. that's right. so as part of the first summit she writes to raise that and she says when our husbands and i think it's on when our husbands meet in geneva the snowman i'm sure they will have the support of the people in both countries in their effort to put our relations on in more cable stable and constructive footing. i know that we both want to do all we can to improve understanding between people in our two countries and raise a response very positively now what's so funny, is that gorbachev and reagan really liked each other but raise and nancy it was well nancy said, you know it was she born with it because daytime was much more important, but she was glad when she didn't have to deal with race, but just what's wrong with that broad. she was actually about socialism and things over team well and and it's amazing me go for the moscow summit. they go to a church with icons. and so nancy. yes, you know, can you tell us about this the symbolism in those and racist says there's no religious over time to those whatsoever and nancy's just flabbergasted anita. thank you nancy, and i want to go as we start to conclude our panel because i want to ask each of our panelists a final thought and question on mrs. reagan's legacy her impact on the library and the legacy of the president. i just wanted to add one thing that we referred to a little bit here today her impact on the white house and the restorations and renovations that she did there. i'd be remiss if i didn't being on the board of the white house historical association gale is to this is an important relationship that all first lady since jackie kennedy have had with this private association to keep the white house the museum quality that it should be and be the standard that mrs. reagan wanted. she raised a lot of private money and not just for the white house, but also for blair house some of the things that were done during her time is restoring reupholstering and re-guilding over a hundred and fifty pieces of historic white house furniture for the collection acquiring the first portrait of john adams for the white house collection during her time and theodore roosevelt's nobel prize was acquired during this time and any of us who worked on the west wing or had blue pass that took people on tours would always point to that nobel prize that was in the roosevelt room and her goal. as i said was bringing the presidency to a standard and using it as an international stage. and so i'd like these lessons of leadership encourage and diplomacy of mrs. reagan that we talked about today. i wonder if each of you can offer a final thought. well you made me think about the white house, but i'm also we're calling that we're celebrating this centennial and nancy reagan. but nancy reagan had to fundraise for this internal veronald reagan and she task boone pickens. who's the oil and gas entrepreneur from amarillo, texas, you know. don't reagan booster to find a hundred million dollars to fundraise for the the opening. you know, they're the centennial fundraising drive. well, he called what he thought was good news of the date of the was getting close. the thermometer was near the top and he said well, we're gonna wear a good shape and this is reagan civil, right? what do you mean? where were we at? he's well, i've got 95 million years already and she said we're like that's not the hopeful a mark. what do you know? but what are you doing what he was calling thinking he'd get praise for the 95 and he bones said i went and found that other five millions so quickly and i got to call her and tell her i hit it. we got a hundred and she said i knew you would do it and boom picking sue also recently passed with such a great help for the reagan library and foundation all and when i worked the diaries of reagan he was a big help on getting the word out about important relationship need if i if i'm concise. can i say to the first one i want to talk about is the the foster grandparent thing. it's forgotten. people don't talk about it as much as maybe they should nancy reagan got involved in the foster grandparent program in california in 1967 it this idea was started in 1965 by star trevor another kennedy reagan family connection shriver was working at johnson administration. he went to a home facility for intellectually challenged children and saw that they had needs that even the most conscientious staff could couldn't meet they needed to be held they needed read to they needed things then he spent coincidentally that afternoon in a senior citizen center and he found that those people needed someone to hold hands with and talk to and to love and to guide and he thought that you reminded me of that line about just you know, two hundred thousand dollars years of government program. that didn't note there was never a single study that's driver says, oh i get these two things can and he decided came up with this foster grandparent nancy heard about it when she was first sighting sacramento. she went to i think was pomona state hospital, which was a facility for intellectually challenged children, and there was a little nine year old asian american boy who just saw nancy. so petite and you want and he took her by the hand and he wouldn't let her hand go the whole time she was there. and when she left she was speaking on this program and both the little boy and nancy started crying and she said i'm gonna get involved with this program and she did and she when she and she brought it to washington. i mean it was it came from washington, but she scaled it and it still exists in in americorps to this day. yes. yes. oh and oh and frank sinatra and her you could probably get on youtube they sing a song together. i do it to love a child and that's he wrote a book to love a child one last quick thing. it's about 10 years ago, my father and i went to the christening of the uss ronald reagan. carrier and nancy they give her this cute champagne ball. she know the nearly broke her arm trying to break it against the hole. i don't think she ever did succeed that some captain sit forward did it. but anyway that night we there was a reception we met we talked. and there was a dinner and she was going to be honored, but she wasn't staying she was flying back to california and she just said to my dad and matter of factly to me and my father she said no, i really do need to get back. ronnie needs me. and that's when it hit me that she was his caretaker and i i think that if there was one last doubter among people who still wanted to be snarky about that nancy reagan how she behaved for years while with courage and love and above and beyond caring for her husband. i think she won the country over if there were any doubters left. i don't think there were any thank you for sharing that nancy final thought to final thoughts one is i just it was just touched on but when she got breast cancer in 1987 and did a lumped and did a massacre to me instead of a long back to me amazingly she was criticized for that the most personal decision, but she saved a lot of people's a lot of women's lives by encouraging them to get mammograms and then finally from another first lady. i think there's a very good thought about nancy reagan. she was a woman of incredible strength and grace and she was passionate advocate for so many important issues through the examples. she set both during her time in the white house and beyond mrs. reagan reminded us of the importance of women's leadership at every level of society. and that's from michelle obama. mmm. i know it's a wonderful comment. thank you nancy david goes to your point. this is a small club amongst first ladies. i know from the first lady. i i served that the bushes had mrs. reagan's date twice overnight at the white house hosted, you know her for a lovely luncheon in her honor it really these these women understand more than anybody else what it's like to do this role and have the person that you love the most, you know, really be challenged and attacked on a daily basis and they want to do all they can to protect them mrs. reagan was a partner to the president. she smart strong ambitious accomplished a great deal. i think we can say on her centennial of her birthday. happy birthday mrs. reagan. your legacy is secure. well, let's have some fun. have you ever seen a first couple of president first lady who seemed more comfortable in front of the camera. what is that about the reagan's they they had had some training. they
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