Reagans Renew Vows for 40th Anniversary
Former President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary Sunday, renewing their vows and issuing “his and hers” statements about marriage.
The couple, who wed on March 4, 1952, in the Little Brown Church of the Valley in Studio City, had already marked their anniversary at a dinner with friends last week. Children and grandchildren attended Sunday’s private ceremony at an undisclosed location in Los Angeles.
“Nothing draws a couple closer together,” the 81-year-old Reagan wrote in his statement, “than to find a pretty spot, maybe with a ukulele and a canoe--Nancy’s idea of a perfect romantic setting--and share happy thoughts of the past.
“Forty years ago, I entered a world of happiness. Nancy moved into my heart filling an empty spot with her love,” Reagan added. “From the start, our marriage was like an adolescent’s dream of what a marriage should be. And for 40 years it has gotten more so with each passing day.”
His wife, in her written remarks, recalled the wedding as a quiet affair attended by actor William Holden and his wife, Ardis.
“He’s given me a life I never expected to have, taking me down roads I never expected to travel,” wrote Nancy Reagan, 70. “It’s been exciting, interesting and fulfilling--and sometimes frightening. I thought I married an actor, but suddenly everything changed and we were in politics.”
Reagan praised his wife for giving up her fledgling acting career to raise their children. He called her a source of strength as he pursued his political ambitions. “With Nancy, I soon realized my life was complete,” Reagan wrote. “Some people can successfully blend career and marriage, but she didn’t want to try.”
Nancy Reagan added: “I’m a very lucky woman. Ronald Reagan is exactly what he seems to be to the public--honest, charming, compassionate, strong principled with definite ideas of what he believes in, and very sentimental.”
