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 The cause of death was congestive heart failure, said a
spokeswoman for the Reagan presidential library. She died at her
Los Angeles home.
"She is once again with the man she loved," her stepson Michael
Reagan wrote on Twitter.
Reagan became one of the most influential first ladies in U.S.
history during her Republican husband's presidency from 1981 to
1989.
Her husband, who affectionately called her "Mommy" while she
called him "Ronnie," died in 2004 after a long struggle with
Alzheimer's, the progressive brain disorder that destroys
memory.
As news of Nancy Reagan's death spread, tributes poured in from
Washington to Hollywood.
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and first lady Michelle
Obama said Nancy Reagan redefined the role of first lady.
"Nancy Reagan once wrote that nothing could prepare you for
living in the White House," the Obamas wrote in a joint
statement on Sunday. "She was right, of course. But we had a
head start, because we were fortunate to benefit from her proud
example, and her warm and generous advice."
Former first lady Barbara Bush said she and her husband, former
President George H. W. Bush, who was vice president under
Reagan, took comfort in knowing Nancy Reagan would be reunited
with her husband, the late president.
The Hollywood glitterati weighed in on social media, many of
them grieving the passing of an icon they remembered having
grown up in the Reagan era.
"I sat near #Nancy Reagan once and felt like a teenager seeing
one of my idols. She was a BOSS," wrote actress Elizabeth Banks
of "The Hunger Games" fame.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who like Ronald Reagan rode his Hollywood
fame to the governor's office in California, said on Twitter
that Nancy Reagan was "one of my heroes."
CANDIDATES CONVEY SYMPATHIES
Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential nomination, from
businessman Donald Trump to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, also
conveyed their sympathies. The ghost of Ronald Reagan, who
remains deeply popular among Republican voters, has hovered over
the campaign as in previous years, with party candidates vying
to claim the mantle of Reagan's legacy.
A Republican debate in September took place at the Reagan
presidential library in Simi Valley, California, with an Air
Force One jet providing a memorable backdrop.
Nancy Reagan will be buried next to her husband at that library.
The public would have a chance to pay their respects prior to
the funeral service, with details to come shortly.
Nancy Davis was a Hollywood actress during the 1940s and 1950s
and married Reagan, a prominent film actor, in 1952. She then
served as first lady of California during her husband's stint as
California governor from 1967 to 1975 before moving into the
White House after his decisive victory over incumbent Democratic
President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Her most publicized project as first lady was the "Just Say No"
anti-drug campaign. After her husband developed Alzheimer's
disease, she became an advocate for discovering a cure.
She was diminutive and publicly soft-spoken, but Nancy Reagan's
strong will, high-tone tastes and clout with her husband made
her a controversial figure during his presidency.
As Reagan's wife, political partner and adviser, she became one
of America's most potent first ladies, alongside the likes of
Franklin Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor, Woodrow Wilson's wife,
Edith, and Bill Clinton's wife, Hillary.
"I see the first lady as another means to keep a president from
becoming isolated," she said in 1985. "I talk to people. They
tell me things. And if something is about to become a problem,
I'm not above calling a staff person and asking about it. I'm a
woman who loves her husband and I make no apologies for looking
out for his personal and political welfare."
Tiny and frail in her later years, Reagan devoted her time to
caring for her ailing husband at their home in Los Angeles'
exclusive Bel Air enclave. She was always a stickler for
protocol and detail and stoically presided over the former
president's weeklong funeral and celebration of his life in June
2004.
'I FORGOT TO DUCK'
One of her most trying times as first lady came when John
Hinckley stepped out of a crowd outside a Washington hotel on
March 30, 1981, and fired six shots toward the president,
striking him in the chest. A .22-caliber bullet punctured his
lung and nearly entered his heart.
"Honey, I forgot to duck," he told her at the hospital.
Some critics lambasted Nancy Reagan as a meddlesome "dragon
lady," derided her anti-drug campaign and ridiculed her for
consulting an astrologer to schedule presidential events.
President Reagan called this view of his wife "despicable
fiction," saying in 1987: "The idea that she is involved in
governmental decisions and so forth and all of this, and being a
kind of dragon lady - there is nothing to that."
The reputation was established during her husband's time as
California governor and followed her to Washington. She was
first accused of being a vacuous spendthrift interested chiefly
in renovating and buying new china for the White House, lavish
entertaining, her designer wardrobe and the like, then portrayed
as a cunning manipulator of policy and people.
Advocates of the latter view saw her influence as virtually
unlimited in such matters as the dumping of presidential
advisers, efforts to get a nuclear arms accord with the Soviet
Union and her husband's decision to seek a second term in 1984.
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Some Reagan-watchers said reports of Mrs. Reagan's influence were
exaggerated and that it was merely the protective concern of a
loving wife.
She frequently clashed with President Reagan's chief of staff,
Donald Regan, who lambasted her in a 1988 "tell-all" book after he
was ousted from the White House during the chaos of the Iran-Contra
scandal in 1987. Regan disclosed that she had used astrology to
decide the timing of presidential speeches and trips, and even her
husband's 1985 cancer surgery.
"Virtually every move and decision the Reagans made during my time
as White House chief of staff was cleared in advance by a woman in
San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the
planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise," Regan
wrote.
James Baker, who served as White House chief of staff during
Reagan's first term, took a different view, telling PBS in 2011: "If
there was one person who was indispensable to Ronald Reagan's
political success, it was Nancy Reagan."
In a statement in Sunday, Baker said Nancy Reagan was "her husband's
closest adviser, his constant protector, and most importantly the
love of his life."
Nancy Reagan acknowledged she had the ear of her husband.
"In most good marriages that I know of, the woman is her husband's
closest friend and adviser," she wrote in her 1989 memoir, "My
Turn." "... But however the first lady fits in, she has a unique and
important role to play in looking after her husband. And it's only
natural that she'll let him know what she thinks. I always did that
for Ronnie and I always will."
Ronald Reagan was known for penning innumerable letters to his wife.
In one, he stated: "I more than love you, I'm not whole without you.
You are life itself to me. When you are gone I'm waiting for you to
return so I can start living again."
'RONNIE'S LONG JOURNEY'
The former president's Alzheimer's struggle made Mrs. Reagan a
campaigner for broader human embryonic stem cell research, a stand
that put her at odds with many Republicans.
"Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place
where I can no longer reach him. Because of this, I'm determined to
do whatever I can to save other families from this pain," she said
before his death in 2004.
Some critics dismissed her "Just Say No" efforts as simplistic but
she became America's most visible anti-drug crusader at a time when
the crack cocaine epidemic was raging.
In 1988, she addressed the U.N. General Assembly, saying the United
States must do more with tougher law enforcement and anti-drug
education efforts and should stop blaming the poor nations that
produce most of the narcotics used by Americans.
"We will not get anywhere if we place a heavier burden of action on
foreign governments than on America's own mayors, judges and
legislators. You see, the cocaine cartel does not begin in Medellin,
Colombia. It begins in the streets of New York, Miami, Los Angeles
and every American city where crack is bought and sold," she told
the General Assembly.
After leaving the White House, she created the Nancy Reagan
Foundation to continue her anti-drug campaign. The organization
helped develop the Nancy Reagan Afterschool Program in 1994 aimed at
drug prevention and life skills for youth.
Mrs. Reagan had her left breast surgically removed in October 1987
after a cancerous tumor was discovered.
She was born Anne Frances Robbins into a crumbling marriage in New
York on July 6, 1921. Her car-salesman father deserted the family
soon after, and her mother, actress Edith Luckett Robbins, resumed
her show business career two years later.
In 1929, her mother married Loyal Davis, a neurosurgeon. Nancy came
to adore him, even taking his name, and the doctor was believed to
have had considerable influence on his eventual son-in-law's shift
from Democrat to Republican years later.
After graduation from elite Smith College, she worked as a nurse's
aide, then began a stage career in New York. Starting in 1949, she
had an eight-year career in films including one - "Hellcats of the
Navy" (1957) - co-starring with Ronald Reagan.
She often took supporting roles but had starring roles like one in
the 1953 B-movie "Donovan's Brain" about a scientist who kept the
brain of a dead millionaire alive in a tank.
Ronald Reagan divorced another actress, Jane Wyman, in 1948. They
had a daughter, Maureen, and adopted a son, Michael.
At the time, Ronald Reagan headed the Screen Actors Guild. Davis was
stunned when an industry newspaper published a list of communist
sympathizers and her name was included (it turned out to be a
reference to another actress of the same name). She sought out her
future husband for assistance.
During the early years of the Cold War, Hollywood blacklisted -
refused to employ - numerous people accused of holding communist
views, ruining many careers and lives.
Ronald and Nancy Reagan got married in 1952 and had two children
together - Patti Davis, an actress, and Ron Jr., who pursued careers
in ballet and television.
She is also survived by her brother, Richard, according to the
Reagan presidential library.
(Reporting and writing by Will Dunham in Washington; Additional
reporting by Joseph Ax, Karen Brooks, Megan Cassella; Editing by
Bill Trott, Diane Craft, Jeffrey Benkoe and Howard Goller)
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