She rushed to his side after he was shot in 1981 by a would-be assassin, and later endured his nearly decade-long battle with Alzheimer's disease. In recent years she broke with fellow Republicans in backing stem cell research as a way to possibly find a cure for Alzheimer's.
Former first lady Nancy Reagan has died at 94 in Bel-Air, California.
Assistant Allison Borio says Mrs. Reagan died Sunday at her home of congestive heart failure.
Her marriage to Ronald Reagan lasted 52 years until his death in 2004.
A former actress, she was Reagan's closest adviser and fierce protector on his journey from actor to governor of California to president of the United States.
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