Former first lady Nancy Reagan in 2011. (Getty)
Former first lady Nancy Reagan, the wife of the late President Ronald Reagan, has died at the age of 94, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library says.
She died at her home in Los Angeles. The cause of death was congestive heart failure, the presidential library says.
Ronald Reagan died on June 5, 2004, at the age of 93, also at their Los Angeles home. He had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years prior to his death.
According to Fox News, Nancy Reagan had appeared frail and had suffered several falls over the past 10 years. She broke several ribs in a fall at her Los Angeles home in 2012. She rarely made public appearances in recent years.
She celebrated her 94th birthday on July 6, 2015, and the presidential library released a phot oof her blowing out the candles on her cake.
Nancy Reagan celebrating her 94th birthday on July 6, 2015. (Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation)
The foundation said in a statement that she celebrated at her home with friends. Her party included a tiered cake, “decorated with cascading peonies, her favorite garden flower.”
She was not able to attend the Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library in September 2015 because of her health, the Los Angeles Times reported.
A spokesman told the newspaper in September, “Unfortunately, Mrs. Reagan has not done media interviews for many years. As much as she would like to participate in events and interviews, she’s realized that she’s had a tremendous life filled with all these exciting opportunities and now is the time to really retire.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, she was seen at the gravesite of her husband in 2014 on the 10th anniversary of his death.
“Though frail and confined to a wheelchair, she looked as elegant as Americans probably remember her from her heyday as a fashion icon in the 1980s,” the Times described. “She wore a cream-colored pantsuit, meticulous hairdo and gold lion door-knocker earrings by her favorite costume jewelry designer, Kenneth Jay Lane.”
Nancy Reagan will be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, next to her husband. Details of the funeral service have not yet been announced.
