Lady in Red
Page 13
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
On our first flight of many to a drug treatment center, Nancy stands in the “gaggle” of press who are asking her every question imaginable. That’s me nearby with a worried look on my face.
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Whenever the president met with another head of state, Nancy invited the spouse for tea. In this photo, Nancy tries to get a word in edgewise. Raisa Gorbachev, a committed Marxist, tended to dominate every conversation.
Photograph by Larry Rubenstein, Reuters
Nancy and Gary Coleman, child star of Diff’rent Strokes, enjoy a laugh as they rehearse on a Hollywood set. This appearance was directed at kids and was very effective at educating them about the dangers of drug use.
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
I introduce Santa and friends to President Reagan in the Oval Office. Santa always made an appearance around the holidays. Some people called him Willard Scott, the weatherman at NBC.
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; photographer: Mary Anne Fackelman
When the Indiana Pacers played the Philadelphia 76ers, they invited Nancy to help them draw attention to the youth drug abuse issue; Nancy took dead aim. Deputy press secretary Betsy Koons Robertson worked out the angles and even stood in as Nancy for a trial run. At the game, Charles Barkley of the 76ers and the Pacers’ Wayman Tisdale lifted Nancy up to the basket, and she slam-dunked the ball. The crowd gave her a standing ovation!
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Nancy and her social secretary Muffie Brandon take a close look at the unveiling of the new Reagan China, while I discuss media coverage with chief of staff Peter McCoy.
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; photographer: Jack Kightlinger
Nancy Reagan changed her image overnight with her surprise appearance on stage at the Gridiron Club. After a year of press criticism, Nancy brought the media elite to their feet for several standing ovations when she showed them her sense of humor and her ability to make fun of herself. Her escort, Charlie McDowell, Washington bureau chief for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, was the president of the Gridiron Club. He and Helen Thomas of UPI were the only journalists in on the secret.
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Nancy loved babies. She cuddled with them whenever she had the chance. This baby was at a London orphanage where the First Lady visited during one of the president’s European tours.
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
In 1984, the president and Mrs. Reagan visited China, and Nancy was charmed by these Chinese children dancing and singing. The president charmed the Chinese by working hard to speak a few words in their language.
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; photographer: Mary Anne Fackelman
Edie Davis, Nancy’s mother, and her precious red woolen gloves are surrounded by Patti Davis, President Reagan, and Nancy during a visit to Phoenix where Mrs. Davis lived. Mrs. Davis, suffering from dementia, found great comfort in those gloves. Nancy treasured those red woolen gloves until she died.
Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Amie Garrison was a five-year-old in desperate need of a liver. Amie, with very little time left to live, is introduced by Nancy to a very surprised press corps, who were only expecting to preview the White House Christmas decorations. The press corps rose to the occasion and were instrumental in getting out the word that Amie’s family was desperate to locate a liver match. Thanks to the team of Nancy Reagan and Tom Starzl, pioneering transplant surgeon from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, this story had a happy ending.
Courtesy of Dave Hume Kennerly
The Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer David Hume Kennerly was very surprised when Time took a pass on this picture. The editor at Time told David it was too schmaltzy. David tried to explain that the Reagans were genuinely schmaltzy. Lucky for this author because I get to unveil this wonderful picture for the first time. David took it standing inside the White House residence while the Reagans stood outside on the balcony. The geometric lines created by the windowpanes and the Washington Monument make the picture especially interesting.
16
Up Close and Personal
On one early morning flight, I sat across from Nancy and she noticed I was watching her eat her breakfast. So, logically, she asked why I was staring.
I explained that the latest story circulating informally through the press corps was that the reason Nancy stayed so thin was that she chewed every bite of food thirty-two times before swallowing. She laughed heartily.
I went on to say that I was sorry to note it was not true, because I had been counting and had hoped this was the secret to staying fit so I could start to practice it.
Nancy once told me a highly amusing story involving a meeting she had with a woman she invited to the residence for some reason or other. At any rate, they had never met before; Nancy was casually dressed in a blouse and wraparound skirt. As she stood to bid her guest goodbye, Nancy’s skirt fell to the floor. She was standing in her slip. She knew her guest was too embarrassed to move; Nancy just giggled as she picked up her skirt and put it back on. She said something to her guest to the effect that this was a meeting she was sure her guest would always remember.
Nancy had meaningful and greatly appreciated advice from former First Ladies. She was particularly fond of Jackie Kennedy whom she regarded as a superb First Lady, especially at such a young age. Nancy told me that Mrs. Kennedy had been very helpful when the Reagans first moved into the White House.
So, naturally, when Bill Clinton was elected in the 1992 election, Nancy reached out to Hillary, writing her a personal note and offering to give her the benefit of her experience, to help the new First Lady in any way she could.
Nancy told me that Hillary never even responded. Nancy said she had absolutely no use for her after that.
Laura Bush was an entirely different story. She graciously invited Nancy to lunch at the White House on May 2, 2005, when Nancy was planning to be in town.
Laura asked Nancy to put together a guest list of ladies she’d like Laura to invite. It was a wonderful reunion. Gahl Burt was there along with Carol Laxalt, Robin Paisley, and Gayle Wilson, among others. I had both Laura and Nancy sign my menu card, something I’d never done before but for some reason this felt historic. I know how much that luncheon meant to Nancy. Seeing her there as a guest was special. And in case you don’t already know it, Laura Bush is a sweetheart. Nancy truly loved her.
* * *
You can really learn a lot about someone by how they treat people who work with them. I talked to both Charlie Palmer and Howie Franklin, both former chief stewards aboard Air Force One. They attended to every personal need of the president and First Lady aboard the plane. I wanted to know about their experiences with the Reagans. No one was in a better position to know the Reagans up close and personal.
Both of the Reagans, according to Howie, were very easy to work for. They stuck to their schedules and were always on time; they were infrequent fliers and always very considerate of the crew. Both men said the Reagans were “extremely gracious and polite.” Howie mentioned that he admired how Nancy always “dressed beautifully.” He also said she was obviously deeply in love with her husband. “They flirted with each other,” he said, “and they sure weren’t doing it to impress me.”
Nancy knew Charlie best, and ev
eryone I spoke to agrees she was really fond of him.
The crew of AF One was invited to the Reagan Library for the dedication of the newly retired plane in the specially built glass pavilion attached to the library. Howie said they were thrilled to sit up front at the ceremony and next to Charlton Heston at that.
Afterward, Nancy walked into the newly installed plane and went all the way to the back until she found Charlie who got a great big hug; she talked to him with tears in her eyes.
Howie told a story about when Nancy and the president were on that very plane. He recounts this story in his own book but he also told it to me personally. They had a refueling stop in Alaska. The president was to leave the plane to greet the people waiting to welcome him. He asked Howie for his trench coat but Nancy objected and kept insisting he wear a different warmer coat with a fur collar. The president argued that he thought he would be overdressed. Nancy did not agree. Howie stood there with both coats during the standoff. The president finally looked at Howie with a resigned look and asked him to give him the fur-collared coat. As he was leaving the cabin he leaned in and quietly said to Howie, “But I’m not wearing my gloves.”
Howie said to me, “It was such a guy thing.”
The first thing that popped into Charlie’s mind when I asked about his remembrances of Nancy was that she always seemed worried about being cold. All of us who worked with her can confirm the veracity of that observation. She’d ask him about their destination with this question, “Am I going to be warm enough?” It was a question we all were asked at some point; eventually we learned to have an answer ready.
* * *
Jane Erkenbeck found herself promoted to special assistant to the First Lady in 1985 after working in several earlier White House positions. In this position, she was Nancy’s trusted personal assistant. She handled all her personal needs and was the “messenger” who carried paperwork needing Nancy’s attention to her several times a day upstairs in the private residence. She especially looked forward to the last “run” because she was often there when the president came home, and he included her in conversations.
She frequently traveled with Nancy when she went to New York or Los Angeles. On Jane’s first trip with Nancy to New York, shortly after Jane began working for her, Nancy asked Jane to bring two seamstresses who worked for Adolfo up to Nancy’s room from the hotel lobby. When she brought the ladies into the room, Nancy sat down on the floor in her bathrobe and asked Jane to walk over next to her. She then proceeded to show the seamstresses the length of Jane’s dress and worked with them (all three of them down on the floor) to settle on the desired length. Nancy pointed out to Jane that she’d noticed that all Jane’s outfits were a bit too long and since she had nice legs she should show them off.
Jane said she was amazed that the First Lady, with whom she had only recently started working, had gotten down on the floor to help figure out Jane’s wardrobe details. Not a side of Nancy that most Americans ever got to see. So, when back in DC, Jane proceeded to have each of her outfits shortened to the right length as frequently as her budget would allow.
Jane also reminded me how Nancy always complained about not sleeping well. Jane told me about a trip to Los Angeles when she woke up at 5:14 a.m. to a hotel room that was rocking and shaking. She ran across the hall and checked with the Secret Service Command Post to confirm they’d just experienced an earthquake.
“I had been asked to wake Nancy at 8:30 a.m. and wondered if I should check on her at 5:14 a.m. I finally decided to wait to see if Nancy called my room.”
All was quiet. At 8:30 a.m., Jane went into Nancy’s room and awakened her. Jane asked her if she’d been disturbed by the earthquake. Nancy replied, “What earthquake?” So much for not sleeping well.
Jane laughed as she reminisced about Nancy’s total absence of culinary expertise. One night in LA, Nancy made arrangements for Ron and his wife, Doria, to join her for dinner in her hotel room. Her son and his wife were known for never being on time.
Jane went into Nancy’s suite and asked if she needed any help preparing because she, Jane, was going out to dinner with friends. Nancy said no; she said she was going to eat right away and was keeping Ron’s and Doria’s meals in the warming oven. Before she left, Jane went into the kitchen and discovered the meals were, in fact, in the warming oven but Nancy had failed to turn it on. They both had a good laugh.
* * *
As Nancy declined during the years after President Reagan’s death, her friends circled around and tried to keep her spirits up. She suffered from glaucoma as well as the lingering effects of a broken pelvis. Both afflictions made getting out and around very difficult and ultimately impossible. I can still picture her walking down the hall in her home—I was visiting from the East Coast—and she had to hold on to the wall to steady herself.
Jane remained a lifelong friend of Nancy’s, and sometimes she and one of her daughters would take her out for lunch. When going out became too difficult, Nancy would invite her friends to come for lunch or tea at her home. Jane especially remembered one visit when her daughter kept breaking up cookies and giving them to Nancy. Nancy always loved cookies.
Nancy sent Jane into her bedroom to see a newly acquired picture of Nancy’s mother hanging on her wall. The picture was of her mother in her sixties or seventies and Nancy loved it. She especially loved that the picture had belonged to a family friend of Edie’s. When the friend passed away, her daughter did some detective work, found out the identity of the person in the portrait, got in touch, and send the picture to Nancy. Jane said Nancy said, “She could have sold it on eBay and made money but instead she gave it to me.” Nancy was the kind of person who was loyal to her friends and always touched by the kindness of a stranger. This was a typical example.
17
Blame It on Nancy
I took a call one morning from a reporter inquiring about a rumor that Nancy had canceled a sumo wrestling match scheduled in the Rose Garden after she learned about it. Seemed like a strange story but I called Nancy anyway to check on it. She sighed and said she’d never even heard of any sumo wrestling event let alone canceled it. She added, “Sometimes I feel like if it’s raining, it must be my fault.”
In truth, the First Lady—any First Lady—provides a convenient excuse for staff on occasion for doing or not doing something. Everyone who has worked in the White House knows that is true.
Once, a few days before President Reagan was to hold a prime-time news conference in the East Room, the chief usher called Mark Weinberg, assistant White House press secretary to President Reagan, to say that Mrs. Reagan did not want the TV production truck to be parked on the north driveway of the White House. He claimed the First Lady did not think it looked very good to have it there and wanted it moved to somewhere much less visible.
Mark was suspicious. He found it hard to believe because he knew Nancy well enough to know she didn’t involve herself in anything as insignificant as this. But since the chief usher was in close contact with her, Mark couldn’t dismiss the possibility. So he decided to call Nancy to confirm but only after he first asked the network producer if the current location was flexible. For a variety of reasons that benefited the White House as much as the network, that truck had to stay exactly where it was, as it had for decades during live press conferences.
Mark called Nancy to discuss the situation. He told her he had been told she did not want the production truck on the north driveway but that people often invoked her name without her knowledge in order to get their way so he felt compelled to double-check. She told him in no uncertain terms that this was the first she had heard of anything to do with a production truck; she had no opinion of where it should be and she did not appreciate her name being used this way. She hoped no one in the press corps was blaming her. Mark reassured her that was not the case and that he would handle things from there. Mark then called the chief usher and t
old him he had spoken with the First Lady and she had no objection to the truck’s location and that consequently it would remain where it always was during live press conferences.
The chief usher had a two-word response: “I see.”
* * *
Speechwriter Landon Parvin had left the White House employ after a few years for more gainful private employment but was called back frequently to write important speeches for both the president and for Nancy. He was one of very few speechwriters who could write a serious policy speech, an emotional speech, and a comedic one, each one effective for the various occasions. He was asked to return to write President Reagan’s 1987 speech on the growing AIDS epidemic for a fund-raising dinner to benefit AMFAR, the powerful group that was committed to AIDS research. Coincidentally, since I had also left the White House in 1985, I had been retained to handle communications for the event at the Potomac restaurant at The Watergate Hotel. Elizabeth Taylor was chairing the dinner; the room at the restaurant had to be expanded with a large tent extending across the patio to accommodate the huge and growing guest list. Nancy cared that this evening go well; she knew Landon could work through the politics and write a powerful speech. He did not disappoint.