EDITORIAL: Honoring Nancy Reagan's legacy

Nancy Reagan will soon be laid to rest beside her husband in their hillside tomb at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in the beautiful Simi Valley, facing the Pacific Ocean.

It is a rest well-deserved for the former first lady, who was an indefatigable advocate for her husband’s presidency as well as for her own causes — most notably the “Just Say No” anti-drug program. She also had her own career as an actress in the golden era of Hollywood and a busy life as a wife and mother. Her life with Ronald Reagan was one of the great presidential love stories.

At the age of 94, Mrs. Reagan died Sunday of congestive heart failure at her home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air. Although frail, she had remained active and alert, attending a GOP presidential debate at the library late last year.

In some ways, Nancy Reagan’s death brings to an end a certain style of genteel femininity, which had been the norm throughout most of the 20th century. While Barbara Bush was not too much younger, she was much more direct as first lady and symbolized a shift to a more outspoken approach that women have adopted as they stepped out of their husband’s shadows.

But Nancy was most comfortable right there in her husband’s shadow, and she would never apologize for that. She was his strength, his comfort and the great love of his life, and that was never more apparent than in the dark days after the president was shot and nearly mortally wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in a 1981 assassination attempt.

The country was never aware at the time just how dangerous the president’s injuries were, because both he and Nancy were old troupers who knew the show must go on. It was important for the world to see a strong president who was fully in control, and she helped to assure that. Such leadership can’t be faked; it comes from the heart.

So too did the love that kept her devotedly by her Ronnie’s side in the final decade of his life after he had fallen victim to Alzheimer’s disease. She was never more strong, nor more admirable, than in those long years out of the public spotlight.

Mrs. Reagan’s private funeral service will be held Friday. Fittingly, for a woman who took great pride in getting everything “just so,” the event was planned down to the smallest details by the former first lady herself. We trust it will turn out beautifully.