“Kitty, please be very careful.… hit on you”: “Wretched Excess,” Newsweek online, April 21, 1991, https://www.newsweek.com/wretched-excess-202154.
privately agreed must have been Nancy’s doing: Paul Costello, former White House spokesman for Rosalynn Carter, interview by author, Washington, DC, April 3, 2019.
“Ronald Reagan,” Nofziger began, “you have broken my heart… without your even knowing or caring”: Lyn Nofziger, “A Reaganite’s Lament,” Washington Post, August 4, 1991, C7.
Others who were involved… when their terms expired: Confidential interviews.
“I had doubted… Nancy that he wants and needs to be around all the time”: Deaver, Different Drummer, 204–8.
“I want to get even with him, too… didn’t have to argue very hard”: Spencer, author interview, July 11, 2017.
“Just ask Nancy Reagan”: “Her Criticism of Oliver North Was Turning Point in Va. U.S. Senate Race,” Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch online, March 7, 2016, https://www.newsadvance.com/her-criticism-of-oliver-north-was-turning-point-in-va/article_28a5c5a2-a274-5355-9d7e-bdc3ff33a4c0.html.
“After Mrs. Reagan’s… would put North in the Senate”: Pollster Geoff Garin to author, email, April 28, 2019.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Have you seen this before?”… “I’m not sure”: Hutton, interview, April 15–16, 2004, Miller Center.
“What’s wrong?… Something is not right here”: Ryan, interview, May 25, 2004, Miller Center.
“We’ve got to keep this thing moving”: Ryan, author interview, January 22, 2020.
“Ronnie, you’re in Washington”: Higdon, author interview, April 17, 2018. Higdon, the former Reagan aide who later headed Thatcher’s US office, said he witnessed the exchange.
“this has been happening even in his own house”: Hutton, interview, April 15–16, 2004, Miller Center.
“Like most people then… I was certainly going to learn!”: Nancy Reagan, I Love You, Ronnie, 183.
“They saw and spoke with him daily… never found his memory, reasoning, or judgment to be significantly impaired”: Lawrence K. Altman, “A President Fades into a World Apart,” New York Times online, October 5, 1997, https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/05/us/reagan-s-twilight-a-special-report-a-president-fades-into-a-world-apart.html.
“no hint of mental deterioration… have reason to worry”: Morris, Dutch, 662.
“And I don’t know if it had anything to do with Alzheimer’s”: Patrick, Reagan: What Was He Really Like?, 1:225.
“on the later jokes… much more noticeable”: Douglas Brinkley, telephone interview by author, March 23, 2020.
not yet a solid scientific consensus: American Association for the Advancement of Science online, “BU/VA CTE Researcher Ann McKee Receives $10 Million NIH Grant,” EurekAlert!, April 27, 2020, https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/busobcr042720.php.
A final rupture… “leave that where it lies”: There are numerous press accounts of this on-air exchange. They include: Tom Shales, “Television Basking in the Glow,” Washington Post, January 21, 1993, D1; and Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich, “The Boomers Ball: Picking Up the Perks of Presidential Power,” New York Times, January 21, 1993, A11.
“Don’t you ever call me again”: Page, The Matriarch, 252–53.
“Ronnie, you remember so-and-so…”: Colacello, “Ronnie and Nancy Part II,” 176.
His longtime political adviser… “have it checked”: Spencer, author interview, October 22, 2016.
“I don’t think I finished the whole exam”: Hutton, interview, April 15–16, 2004, Miller Center.
“Knowing her husband as she did… darkness descended”: Ron Reagan, My Father at 100, 218.
preparing stories about his decline: ibid.
“They were very short… we had a lot of memories”: Nancy Reagan interview with Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes, CBS, September 24, 2002.
“When you come right down to it… so it’s lonely”: ibid.
“Maybe if Colin Powell runs…”: Patti Davis, Long Goodbye, 107–8.
“the pain that I have caused”: Eleanor Clift, “The Long Goodbye,” Newsweek online, October 1, 1995, https://www.newsweek.com/long-goodbye-184022.
“I don’t know how to be alone… I’ve never been alone”: Patti Davis, Long Goodbye, 109–10.
“The coach is waiting for me”… no more games: Hutton, interview, April 15–16, 2004, Miller Center.
For a while… field boots and his saddle: John Barletta with Rochelle Schweizer, Riding with Reagan: From the White House to the Ranch (New York: Citadel Press, 2005), 210–14.
quietly put Rancho del Cielo up for sale: Felicia Paik, “Reagan’s Ranch Is for Sale, but Has Found No Takers,” Wall Street Journal online, May 5, 1997. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB862780938948169000.
“I’ll do what I have to do”… “as if the land itself were haunted”: Patti Davis, Long Goodbye, 256–57.
“Losing my father and losing the ranch… That’s why I have to”: ibid., 258–59.
“The weekends we used to spend there… when we were normal”: ibid., 172.
advance on their inheritances: Ron Reagan, author interview, Seattle, August 13, 2019; Dennis Revell, interview by author, Sacramento, CA, June 3, 2019.
“Warren and I treasured… best gossip from both coasts”: Brokaw eulogy at Nancy Reagan funeral.
“Honey, you remember when—”: Nancy Reagan, interview by Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes, CBS, September 4, 2002.
Bush did not respond for three weeks, Wicks said, which wounded Nancy: Wick, author interview, July 13, 2017.
“Ronald Reagan didn’t have to take care of Ronald Reagan for the last ten years”: Deaver, Nancy, 157–62.
“That’s the greatest gift you could have given me”: Patti Davis, Long Goodbye, 298–99.
“The pomp was nearly unprecedented… two prime ministers”: David Von Drehle, “Reagan Hailed as Leader for ‘the Ages,’ ” Washington Post online, June 12, 2004, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2004/06/12/reagan-hailed-as-leader-for-the-ages/949ec041-a8d4-4ef2-940a-18a4a135a273.
Higdon cringed… sign their funeral programs: Higdon, author interview, April 7, 2018.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“I go to the library or work for the library all the time… I’m working for Ronnie”: Bob Colacello, “Nancy Reagan Speaks Out About Obamas, the Bushes, and Her Husband,” Vanity Fair online, June 1, 2009, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/06/nancy-reagan-speaks-out-about-obamas-the-bushes-and-her-husband.
“I think we can claim victory”… “she was going to get it”: T. Boone Pickens, interview with author, Washington, DC, August 25, 2016.
“If he were able to, he’d quietly thank them but say, ‘Please don’t’ ”: Deaver, Nancy, 156.
“I had to write and thank you… and thanks again”: Nancy Reagan to Albert R. Hunt, 1998; letter provided to the author by Hunt.
“The letters suggest a man… as much as the thoughts shaped the writing”: Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs, “The Real Reagan,” Time, September 29, 2003, 54–56.
“I don’t think like that.… I’m not that way”: Brinkley, author interview, March 23, 2020.
“Who was that elderly woman?… She looks familiar”: Sam Donaldson, interview by author, Washington, DC, September 22, 2019.
“Whatever it was, love, she felt, did not just disappear”: Peggy Noonan, “Farewell to Nancy Reagan, a Friend and Patriot,” Wall Street Journal online, March 11, 2016, https://www.wsj.com/articles/farewell-to-nancy-reagan-my-darling-friend-1457654369.
Her friend Robert Higdon approached Episcopal priest… neighborhood of Washington: Higdon, author interview, April 17, 2018.
“she had a quiet elegance”… not likely to happen: Stuart Kenworthy, interview by author, Washington, DC,
