The Triumph of Nancy Reagan by Karen Tumulty (short books for teens txt) 📕

“pretty hopeless… join that maelstrom”: ibid., 218.

just happened to have his phone number handy: Cannon, Governor Reagan,” 464–67; Reed, Reagan Enigma, 132–33.

“It’s late… get some sleep”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 173–75.

“we can still be friends”: ibid.

“She was a very powerful woman… gave the country back its optimism”: Sears, author interview, January 14, 2019.

CHAPTER TEN

with “a cool correctness… deserved the change in our relationship”: John McCain with Mark Salter, Worth the Fighting For: The Education of an American Maverick and the Heroes Who Inspired Him (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002), 85–86.

“John had met somebody young… not really a lot I could do about it”: Carol McCain, telephone interview by author, July 30, 2017.

“It was a power play… no role in a Reagan administration”: Spencer Behind the Podium, 95.

“wanted to run the White House… attended the funerals”: Nofziger, Nofziger, 242.

“As George and I stood there… putting the party back together”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, loc. 3066 of 12608, Kindle.

“When her husband finally… who always smiles, didn’t”: Michael Kramer, “Inside the Room with George Bush,” New York online, July 28, 1980. https://books.google.com/books?id=0OUCAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=bush&f=false—p12.

“Her face told it all… consoling her”: Bill Peterson, “The Republicans in Detroit,” Washington Post online, July 18, 1980, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/07/18/the-republicans-in-detroit/fc04f2b9-6fb2-4694-a10e-ecb908f20ab1/?utm_term=.72dd020e7702.

“all the places… it’s brilliant!”: Mitchell Owens, “Inside John F. Kennedy’s House in Virginia,” Architectural Digest online, January 31, 2015, https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/john-jacqueline-kennedy-virginia-house-plans-auction-article.

a favorite of the Texas governor: Nofziger, Nofziger, 269.

“Rosalynn Carter would never put words in her husband’s mouth in public”: Mike Feinsilber, Associated Press, “Three Wives: Strengths of Mates Is What the Presidential Candidates Have in Common,” Anniston (AL) Star, September 28, 1980, 11C.

“She can sit perfectly still… over and over?”: Sally Quinn, “Nancy Reagan on the Road to the Realm,” Washington Post online, May 1, 1980, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/05/01/nancy-reagan-on-the-road-to-the-realm/65de8bc0-ec7f-426d-b18e-b892beee59a4.

“It’s an old secret… the little touch of the bitch inside”: Julie Baumgold, “Ronald Reagan’s Total Woman,” New York online, July 28, 1980, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/03/read-new-yorks-nancy-reagan-story-from-1980.html.

“She’s very complicated… easy for people to understand her”: McCain, author interview, July 30, 2017.

“They just couldn’t identify with you… everything they were rebelling against”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 27.

“Jim Baker had asked me… She was a great flirt”: George Will, telephone interview by author, March 31, 2017.

“Ronnie never wears makeup”: Jon Meacham, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (New York: Random House, 2016), 259.

“a little color to his cheeks”: Deaver, Behind the Scenes, 98.

“If you wanted a document to disappear… win a partial victory”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 203.

“Oh, no, not Ed”: Spencer, Behind the Podium, 100–101.

“I had managed… the other not”: James A. Baker III, with Steve Fiffer, “Work Hard, Study… and Keep Out of Politics!” Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2006), 97.

“Nobody in the campaign… why Baker was suddenly on the plane”: Spencer, Behind the Podium, 101.

“Jim Baker is a gentleman… with that kind of person”: Will, author interview, March 31, 2017.

“She was the one… more than anybody else”: Brian D. Sweany, “The Fixer,” Texas Monthly online, April 2015, https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/the-fixer.

“Ronnie, Jim is leaving the plane… What in God’s name have we got going here?”: Richard Allen, interview, May 28, 2002, Presidential Oral Histories, Ronald Reagan Presidency, Miller Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/richard-allen-oral-history-assistant-president-national.

“Reagan’s personal and political needs… honest broker between Baker and Meese”: Deaver, Behind the Scenes, 126.

“The real troika, frankly… Nancy, Baker, and Deaver”: Clark, interview, August 17, 2003, Miller Center.

“I couldn’t vote for my father… as cowardly as you can get”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 248.

they heard the race being called for Ronnie: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 186.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“We want to avoid… get this place working again”: Elisabeth Bumiller, “The Reagans’ Hello Party,” Washington Post, November 19, 1980, E-1.

“Are you sure this is serious?… I’m a Democrat”: ibid.

“After four long years… eager to be wooed”: Lynn Rosellini, “Reagan Asks for a First Waltz and Wins Hearts in the Capital,” New York Times online, November 19, 1980, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/11/19/issue.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=LedeAsset&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article.

“ ‘Just invite them and see’ ”: Colacello, “Ronnie and Nancy Part II,” Vanity Fair, August 1998, 176.

“a photograph that may upset arch-conservatives”… “you should be unhappy with Ronald Reagan”: Katharine Graham, Personal History (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 611–12.

“enormously impressed… no matter how rough the sea gets”: Richard Nixon to Michael Deaver, February 11, 1981, Deaver, Michael K.: Files, Box OA 7618, February 1981, Reagan Presidential Library, www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/digitallibrary/smof/dcos/deaver/box-001/40-137-7065105-001-006-2016.pdf.

“She loves young Ron and cried for days after he got married”: Garry Clifford, “Nancy’s Class Act,” People online, August 5, 1985, https://people.com/archive/nancys-class-act-vol-24-no-6.

“Mrs. Reagan was sitting there.… before they have the job”: “Roy Stories: Cohn Speaks from Beyond the Grave,” New York, February 22, 1988, 43, available at https://books.google.com/books?id=reUCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=%22nancy+reagan%22+william+simon+treasury+secretary&source=bl&ots=wxJvkQJRBk&sig=ACfU3U3ioqg8xZ4F0QcJYIiZdmYJv7EMRw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7q8yEyfPiAhWswFkKHcFpBlU4ChDoATAGegQIBhAB#v=onepage&q=%22nancy%20reagan%22%20william%20simon%20treasury%20secretary&f=false. Vetoing Simon was a fateful move, however, as it paved the way for Merrill Lynch chairman Donald Regan, who became Nancy’s greatest foe, to get the job—and a foothold in Ronnie’s administration. Cohn recounted the story, which he claimed to have heard from Simon.

Not everyone was so taken with the spectacle: The gala would also be remembered for an unfortunate performance by Broadway star Ben Vereen—an African American—shuffling and singing in blackface.

“When you’ve got to pay $2,000… that’s ostentatious”: Liz Smith, New York Daily News, January 21, 1981, 12, available at Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/485811520.

“I think it’s outrageous… eaten up by inflation”: Leslie Bennetts, “With a New First Lady, a New Style,” New York Times online, January 21, 1981, https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/21/us/y-reagan-with-a-new-first-lady-a-new-s.html.

Thirty-two minutes: Morris, Dutch, 781.

Where Ronnie’s predecessors… looks toward the rest of the country, spreading westward: The decision to move the venue had been made by Congress’s inaugural committee the previous year, though it would often be attributed to Ronnie’s stage managers.

“My strongest memory… friends all their lives”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 198.

“It glows… restore harmony”: Morris, Dutch, 418.

“Dear Jane… Sincerely, Ron”: Ronald Reagan to Jane Wyman, January 27, 1981; letter provided to the author by Dennis Revell.

“It is generally agreed… everybody is positive are coming”: Reagan Library, Michael Deaver correspondence files, February 1981, Box 7618. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/digitallibrary/smof/dcos/deaver/box-001/40-137-7065105-001-004-2016.pdf].

“This newspaper is quite sure… along on much less”: