“I’m afraid people are going to have to take me as I am,” shared Nancy Reagan in a 1966 interview with one of her favorite publications, Women’s Wear Daily.
Being a woman with direction while maintaining her classy poised disposition, Nancy Reagan had taken a stance in office that few of her generation had ever seen, or even anticipated from the quiet natural beauty that stood loyally next to husband and president Ronald Reagan.
Drawing her everyday inspiration from her bedrock conservative ways and unapologetic values of faith within the power of intuition, Nancy took on a role that redefined the traditional platitudes of what it meant to be a behind-the-curtain stereotypical wife in politics.
Instead, she took on a very different role that shaped the Reagan area as a sharp contrast in history to what many can remember from the Carter era. While supporting the husband she cared for so much, she took pride in the American fashion industry. Throughout the eight-year-long Reagan reign in the White House, many top tier American designers were brought into the spotlight as both model individuals and brands of quality. Nancy’s positive reputation paved way for some of her favorite designers such as Carolina Herrera, Geoffrey Beene, and jeweler Kenneth Jay Lane.
Even during moments she was criticized in the press for breaking tradition, she never toned down the image she had created for herself. Redefinition was fundamental in the rise of Nancy’s independent and graceful reputation.
Former assistant secretary Catherine Fenton mentioned to CNN that even in this time of grief and mourning that the former first lady “leaves a remarkable legacy among American first ladies.”
“From her fight against the proliferation against drugs to her efforts to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s, she’d made a lifelong impression.”
“She had a great finesse,” mentioned Fenton. “We all, as young women, learned so much from her. We will miss her. She will always be remarkable.
-by Meghan Fazio
