First Lady Denies ‘Fussing and Feuding’ With Raisa : Not Feuding With Raisa, First Lady Says

First Lady Nancy Reagan today denied that there is any feud between her and Raisa Gorbachev and said she just wants to wish the Soviet leader’s wife a merry Christmas when they get together for lunch in New York.

“You all keep saying that there’s . . . fussing and feuding, but there really isn’t,” Nancy Reagan told reporters as she accepted the White House Christmas tree, an 18-foot balsam fir presented by the Irv Daggett family of Montello, Wis.

She said she is looking forward to her visit Wednesday with Raisa Gorbachev, with whom her relations have appeared chilly during previous meetings.

“I hope she has a good time in New York,” Mrs. Reagan said. “She has a wonderful time to go there. All the Christmas decorations are up, and it’s a great time to go.”

As to talk of a feud, she said: “I think there’s been too much attention paid to it. I do. I really do.”

The First Lady and Raisa Gorbachev will be among the guests at a women’s luncheon given by Marcela Perez de Cuellar, wife of the U.N. secretary general, while their husbands meet on Governors Island in New York on Wednesday.

Regarding the future, the First Lady said she will have mixed feelings when she leaves the White House when President Reagan’s term expires Jan. 20.

“There are some things I will be glad to get rid of and some things I won’t be glad to get rid of,” she said. She said the things she will miss include friends, the White House telephone operators and Air Force One, the presidential airplane.

She also took note of the many farewell festivities to which she and the President have been invited, saying, “If there are many more tributes, I think I will be washed away.”

The First Lady said she and the President will celebrate Christmas with family members at the White House on Dec. 22, the day before they leave for a Christmas and New Year’s vacation in California.

She said they were giving each other furniture for the house they will occupy in Bel-Air after the President leaves office.