Former First Lady Nancy Reagan has died at home in California at the age of 94, the BBC reported.

Mrs Reagan, who had been living in Bel Air, Los Angeles, died of congestive heart failure, the Reagan library said.
Her 52-year marriage to Ronald Reagan was once described as the US presidency's greatest love affair.

From 1981-89 she was one of the most influential first ladies in US history; initially criticized for an expensive renovation of the White House, but later becoming a much-loved figure.

On Oct. 17, 1987, a few days after cancer was detected in a mammogram, Mrs. Reagan underwent a mastectomy of her left breast. Afterward, she discussed the operation openly to encourage women to have mammograms every year.

Born Nancy Robbins in New York City in 1921 to a car salesman and an actor, Reagan was raised by her aunt and uncle in Maryland after her parents divorced and her mother returned to acting. 

She took the surname Davis from her mother’s second husband, and pursued acting at Smith College and on Broadway in the 1940s. By the 1950s she was in Hollywood, where she met her future husband, then an actor himself.

“Nancy Reagan was totally devoted to President Reagan, and we take comfort that they will be reunited once more,” said Barbara Bush, wife of Reagan’s vice-president and successor, in a statement. “George and I send our prayers and condolences to her family.”

The Reagans appeared together in the 1956 film Hellcats of the Navy, and their devotion to each other became famous as they rose through the ranks of public life.

Source: MENA