Nancy Reagan: Coffin placed in presidential library before funeral
- 9 March 2016
- From the section US & Canada
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AP
The coffin of former US First Lady Nancy Reagan has been placed in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California for public viewing.
Members of the armed services accompanied the hearse as it arrived at the library in the Simi Valley city.
The funeral takes place on Friday.
Nancy Reagan died at the age of 94 last Sunday. Her 52-year marriage to Ronald Reagan was once described as the US presidency's greatest love affair.
Mrs Reagan, who died of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles, was praised by President Barack Obama's family and other senior US politicians and foreign leaders.
From 1981-89 she was one of the most influential first ladies in US history, initially criticised for an expensive renovation of the White House, but later becoming a much-loved figure.
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Mrs Reagan will be buried next to her husband at the presidential library.
Like her husband, Mrs Reagan was a former Hollywood performer who made it all the way to the White House.
As Nancy Davis, she was an actress during the 1940s and 1950s and married Mr Reagan, a prominent film actor, in 1952.
She 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 Democrat President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
As first lady, she sought to emulate the style of one of her predecessors, Jackie Kennedy.
To this end, she extensively redecorated the White House, and accepted designer dresses worth $1m (£703,000) and a 4,732-piece set of china worth $209,000.
But this spending spree provoked an outcry from some outraged by what they saw as profligacy and waste while millions of Americans were losing their jobs.
Public opinion was also swayed by accusations that Mrs Reagan had a frosty personality, often consulted astrologers, and ordered the dismissal of White House chief of staff Donald Regan in 1987.
"I see the first lady as another means to keep a president from becoming isolated," she once said.
Mrs Reagan's best-known project as first lady was the anti-drugs "Just Say No" campaign.
After her husband died of Alzheimer's disease in 2004, she became a champion for Alzheimer's patients, raising millions of dollars for research and breaking with fellow conservative Republicans to argue for stem cell research.
