Former First Lady Nancy Reagan laid to rest beside her husband - latimes

In a service filled with stories and humor, mourners joined Friday to memorialize Nancy Reagan, recalling an influential former first lady who was stylish, tough, tender, her husband’s fiercest protector.

Beneath a gray sky at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, hundreds came to pay their respects to Reagan, who died at her Bel-Air home Sunday at 94. She was interred beside her husband, the nation's 40th president, with whom she was inseparable in life.

Those who gathered reflected Reagan's journey from Hollywood during its Golden Age to the White House. First Lady Michelle Obama; former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura; and former first lady and presidential candidate  Hillary Clinton  sat side by side, while celebrities such as actors Mr. T and Tom Selleck and singer Johnny Mathis also were in attendance.

Her daughter, Patti Davis, recalled that in the months before Ronald Reagan died, Nancy Reagan told her family she had to be at his side during his last living moments.

Her son, Ronald Prescott Reagan, echoed that sentiment.

"My father was inclined to believe that everyone was basically good," he said. "My mother didn't share that inclination, and she didn't have that luxury. In my mother's world, you were either helpful to her husband, or you were not."

Journalist Diane Sawyer recalled interviewing Nancy Reagan years ago. They talked about her husband's devastating Alzheimer's disease, and how one can endure when "the size of the love is the size of the loss."

Davis and Ron Reagan stood near their mother's casket just before a heavy rain began. With a choir singing "God Bless America," Ronald Prescott Reagan kissed the palm of his hand and patted his mother's casket. - Read More 

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan laid to rest beside her husband

Nancy Reagan is eulogized as tough but tender and her husband's fiercest protector

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan is buried beside her beloved 'Ronnie'