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The former First Lady, who was married to President Ronald Reagan, passed away in Bel Air
Photo: Reagan presidential Foundation
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Nancy Davis was an actress when she married Ronald Reagan - then president of the Screen Actors Guild - in 1952. Pictured: their wedding, left, and a head shot from a play at Smith College in Massachusetts, right
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Despite her own health setbacks Mrs Reagan remained active in politics, particularly in stem-cell research
'Drugs take away the dream from every child’s heart and replace it with a nightmare, and it’s time we in America stand up and replace those dreams,' she said in a speech which led to 12,000 Just Say No clubs being set up across the country and a Just Say No Week implemented by Congress.
Her efforts are credited with driving cocaine use down to a 10-year low.
Ronald Reagan died on June 5, 2004, after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.
In recent years, Nancy struggled with her health after falling at home and breaking three ribs in 2012, not long after breaking her pelvis at home in 2008.
Despite her own health setbacks, however, Mrs Reagan remained active in politics, particularly in relation to stem-cell research.
She also endorsed Mitt Romney for the presidency in 2012.
On Sunday, Mrs Reagan's adopted stepson Michael Reagan led tributes to the former First Lady on Twitter, writing: 'I am saddened by the passing of my step mother Nancy Reagan...She is once again with the man she loved.God Bless...'
Rand Paul tweeted: 'Nancy Reagan was an exemplary First Lady and woman. She will be missed. My thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones. RIP Mrs. Reagan'
Born in New York City in 1921, her birth certificate reads Anne Francis Robbins, but everyone called her Nancy from the start.
At the time her mother Edith Luckett, an actress on Broadway, and her father Kenneth Robbins, a car salesman, were married and living in New York.
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She married Ronald Reagan in 1952. They served in the White House from 1981 to 1989. Pictured: The couple with their son Ronnie before the presidency (left) and on a 1984 trip to the Great Wall Of China (right)
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The couple at their California ranch in 1983
Photo: Reuters
Nancy Reagan touches the casket of her husband, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, as it lies in state in the rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, June 9, 2004
But within months of Nancy's birth, they divorced, her father disappeared, and her mother joined a traveling theater company.
As Edith traveled, Nancy lived with her aunt in Flushing, Queens, until she was six years old.
In 1929, Edith married a neurosurgeon called Loyal Davis, who adopted Nancy and moved the family to Chicago.
Nancy went to college in Chicago then university in Massachusetts, majoring in English and Drama.
She then moved to New York to follow in her mother's footsteps and become an actress, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Katherine Hepburn.
In March 1949, she signed a seven-year contract with MGM and relocated to Hollywood to star in movies such as The Next Voice You Hear, which received a glittering review in the New York Times.
In October 1949, she met Ronald Reagan.
The couple met during Nancy's bid to clear her name after she was accused of being a Communist.
Her name appeared on a list of suspected 'sympathizers' published by the Hollywood Reporter.
Desperate to clarify that she was not a Communist, she arranged to meet with the then-president of the Screen Actor's Guild, Ronald Reagan, for dinner to discuss it.
According to her profile on the Reagan Library website, neither planned to have a late night but they got on so well they stayed at a night club for two shows after dinner.
From that moment on, they were dating but for a year they weren't exclusive, since Reagan had recently divorced.
They married in 1952 - and appeared in a movie together, Hellcats Of The Navy, in 1956.
Photo: WENN
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Mrs Reagan pictured, left, on the popular TV show Diff'rent Strokes to promote the Just Say No campaign in 1983. She also appeared on Dynasty. She is seen, right, getting a basketball lesson in 1988
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Her efforts with the Just Say No campaign are credited with driving cocaine use down to a 10-year low
Photo: Photoshot
Nancy Reagan (center left) with (L-R) Gerald Ford, his wife Betty Ford, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, his wife Pat Ryan, Barbara Bush, and George H W Bush at the opening of the Nixon Presidential Library in 1990
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