Matchmaking and Other Guilty Passions: Notes From Nancy Reagan’s Funeral

I suspect, that with the funeral done, the Nancy Reagan adulation will die away. It does go to show the regard with which americans still hold their Presidents, and by extension their spouses. I recall the 80s, and I supported the Reagan administration. Their were just as disliked by their political opponents as current administrations, though the discourse was somewhat more civil. She was not universally regarded as a style icon, at the time. She carried out the duties traditionally undertaken by first ladies with a forced enthusiasm that was fairly universally observed. I think it's forgotten that the role of political wives then was to be the gatekeeper of their husband's image, in a way that seems quaint today. My grandmother always advised, not to speak ill of the dead, and some of the recent coverage has been understandably gracious. I think we all need to agree to let her soul rest in peace, and move on to more immediate matters.

What's missed by current observers is that Reagan delivered eight budgets, on time, working with an opposition congress. He didn't, by any means, get everything he wanted in those budgets, but he worked in a bipartisan manner, to see that the country was responsibly governed. Today's leaders, especially in congress, would do well to emulate the leader that they claim to revere.

Ms Stanley, your recollections made me smile. Thank you.

Stem cell research..."only in cases of me, myself...and Ronnie"!!!

I can't get over the mean spirited mood in our country :(

For heaven's sake, this was a woman's funeral. Show some respect for the deceased and her children. This was not the time to gabble on about matchmaking or whine about a lack of wi-fi. Shame on you.

The through line of every eulogy was she shallowness, her vanity. Even her children couldn't find the words to eulogize her as a loving, compassionate person. Catty, gossipy, controlling, well dressed, occasionally clever - but not hardly a socially conscious human being - not a particularly loving one. The media was restrained in not remembering her Just Say No Campaign was merely hurried ploy to recast her as someone other than Marie Antoinette.

Why all this adoration? Nancy Reagan was a woman intensely devoted to her husband andwho liked to dress well. Did not have any vision for The United States or Americans. Very self centered. There is no need to make someone a hero or saint just because that person died.

While I have no fond memories of Mrs. Reagan (or her husband)-- and I endured her years as First Lady of California and the U.S.-- I also choose not to disparage her. I have resolved only to remember one thing about her, her dress size after it was revealed to the public back in the eighties: Two. The rest is a history for others to retain. I am working on totally emptying my memory bank of Mr. Reagan.

I was especially struck that not one speaker at Mrs. Reagan's funeral, including her children, mentioned her love for her children. No life can be considered successful if a parent makes a child feel unloved.

Of course she was always worried about her Ronnie. The wife of the boss has to protect the source of HER importance. Without him, she's another banal woman watching soaps at 2:30 in the afternoon, the world happily ignoring her.

In the 1980's I worked in labor organizing and municipal government before committing to law school. I also demonstrated in events for the nuclear freezer movement, so safe to say I was not a big fan of Ron and Nancy, nor of the crew they brought into power with them. I felt their entire 8 years in high office an exercise in detachment and candidly bizarre behaviors. Consulting astrologists on scheduling issues? But they were sold to us twice and we bought it both times given the tired alternatives. If anything, the last eight years gave us people who were conducting a normal family life, albeit under extreme circumstances. No Iran Contra no "moral equivalent of our founding fathers", no ostentatious displays of shiny things, no Meese, no Baker, no Schulz, no Ollie. Not as entertaining, but certainly more grounded with where the rest of America lives it live.

I can't find much to admire about Nancy Reagan. This article adds to the loathing with one particular revelation. The woman who with her husband callously ignored thousands dying of AIDS when it was a new epidemic yet when her husband was dying of Alzheimer's she lobbied to overturn a ban on stem cell research. Such selfishness and hypocrisy.

"First Lady" reflects the majesty many Americans miss in a democracy.; Nancy was just a woman who married her second husband after her acting career was shortlived.; She never studies politics, economics, or history, never ran for or served in a public office, and she was afraid of science, preferring astrology to biology, thus dooming HIV-AIDS sufferers to years of neglect. The right clothes and hair color, ah, that she cared about. Protecting B-actor from any criticism was her only contribution to his public life. Her children felt unserved.
We must sympathize with the loss her friends and relatives feel, of course, and I do. But neither Nancy nor her man was a thinker or a public person with whom we could empathize. The failed actress wife of a failed actor husband, Nancy will be forgotten long after Eleanor Roosevelt's name brings smiles and tears, for Eleanor cared about, nurtured, educated, and in myriad ways served the public and not just her "man".

I have no problem with funerals and burials provided at public expense for Presidents, members and former members of the military, policemen and firemen who died while on duty and paupers. Everybody else should pay their own way.