1st Lady Tells Own Ordeal to Palme Widow
Nancy Reagan talked today about the 1981 assassination attempt against her husband with the widow of Sweden’s slain Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was never invited to the White House.
“I offered her my personal condolences,” Mrs. Reagan told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with Lisbet Palme at the office of Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson.
The Palmes were walking home unguarded through central Stockholm on Feb. 28, 1986, when a lone assassin gunned down the prime minister from behind and grazed his wife with a second bullet.
“I told her I had had a similar experience, although of course not as bad,” Mrs. Reagan said in reference to the 1981 assassination attempt that wounded President Reagan. Her husband is now at the Venice summit.
Mrs. Reagan, wearing a plaid dress, said she and Mrs. Palme also talked about children.
Mrs. Palme, a child psychologist who has three grown sons, is involved in the Swedish branch of the U.N. Children’s Fund.
Mrs. Reagan said she got along well with Mrs. Palme, who shared the socialist views of her slain husband, who was never invited to the White House.
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