Nancy Reagan - Life & Times
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Nancy is Born in New York City
July 6, 1921
Nancy Davis Reagan was born Anne Frances Robbins on July 6, 1921 in Queens, New York to Edith Luckett Robbins and Kenneth Seymour Robbins. She was named after her grandmothers, but was nicknamed “Nancy” by her mother at an early age.
According to family legend, Nancy was actually due on the fourth of July, but as her mother was a devoted baseball fan and determined to see a doubleheader that day, she somehow ...
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Nancy’s Early Years
1923
After Ken Robbins left his wife and child, Edith refused to accept alimony from her husband, and resumed her acting career to support herself and her daughter. Until Nancy was two years old, Edith took her with her wherever she went. Eventually, Edith decided that traveling from show to show was no life for a child, and in 1923 she reluctantly decided to leave Nancy with her sister and brother-in-law, Virginia and C....
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Nancy Moves to Chicago
May 21. 1929
On May 21, 1929, Edith Robbins and Loyal Davis were married in Chicago. Nancy remembers being very happy for her mother, but just a little bit jealous that she would have to share her with Dr. Davis. Loyal Davis had a son, Richard, from his previous marriage, who was four years younger than Nancy. Richard lived with his mother most of the year, but joined his father, Edith and Nancy in Chicago during the summer mont...
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Nancy at Smith College
September, 1939
Nancy Davis graduated from Girls Latin School in June of 1939, and entered Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in September. That summer, Loyal Davis’ first wife, Pearl, died of tuberculosis and their son, Richard, came to live with Edith and Loyal in Chicago. Four years younger than Nancy, he entered ninth grade at the Boys Latin School. Nancy and Richard had spent summers together since Edith and Loy...
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Nancy in New York
December, 1944
Nancy Davis moved to New York City in December of 1944, and it was an exciting time to be a young actress in Manhattan. The war was coming to an end and the mood was upbeat. Broadway was enjoying its best season in twenty years, with a record number of new plays and hits, including Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and their long-running Oklahoma!, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, and Jerome Robbi...
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