Americans of all parties paid tribute to Nancy Reagan on Sunday, remembering the former first lady who had a profound influence on her husband’s eight years as president in the 1980s.
Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid tribute to “her proud example” and said: “We remain grateful for Nancy Reagan’s life, thankful for her guidance, and prayerful that she and her beloved husband are together again.”
Reagan died on Sunday, aged 94, in her home in Los Angeles, the former president’s foundation said in a statement.
Nancy Reagan was sometimes called “the first lady of the Republican party”, because of her husband’s extraordinary legacy. His conservative successors immediately hailed her as a remarkable half of a beloved White House.
“Nancy Reagan was totally devoted to President Reagan, and we take comfort that they will be reunited once more,” said Barbara Bush, wife of Reagan’s vice-president and successor, George HW Bush, in a statement. “George and I send our prayers and condolences to her family.”
Their son George W Bush, the 43rd president, and his wife offered their condolences as well.
“Mrs Reagan was fiercely loyal to her beloved husband, and that devotion was matched only by her devotion to our country,” the president and Laura Bush said in a statement.
“Her influence on the White House was complete and lasting,” they added, with allusions to her renovations of the presidential mansion and her activism on drug abuse and breast cancer. “Laura and I are grateful for the life of Nancy Reagan.”
Mitt Romney, a Republican governor who tried to succeed Bush and who this week gave a scathing speech about how the party has changed since Reagan, said the former first lady’s death was “a final goodbye to the days of Ronald Reagan”.
“With charm, grace, and a passion for America, this couple reminded us of the greatness and the endurance of the American experiment,” Romney wrote on Facebook.
“Some underestimate the influence of a first lady but from Martha [Washington] and Abigail [Adams] through Nancy and beyond, these women have shaped policy, strengthened resolve and drawn on our better angels. God and Ronnie have finally welcomed a choice soul home.”
James Baker, chief of staff and Treasury secretary under Ronald Reagan, said: “Nancy Reagan was one half of the team that restored our nation’s pride and confidence in itself, and reinvigorated America’s leadership role in the world. She was her husband’s closest adviser, his constant protector, and most importantly the love of his life.”
The man at whom Romney directed his anger at this week, the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, tweeted his reaction.
“Nancy Reagan, the wife of a truly great president, was an amazing woman,” he wrote. “She will be missed!”
Another candidate who frequently invokes Reagan, the Texas senator Ted Cruz, tweeted: “Nancy Reagan will be remembered for her deep passion for this nation and love for her husband.”
Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said: “In many ways the Reagan love story was classic Hollywood. But it was unmistakably human, too. Hands intertwined, Nancy and Ron rose to the pinnacle of political power, weathered cancer and personal heartbreak, and braved the depths of Alzheimer’s cold embrace – always together.”
The statement from the current president and first lady said: “Nancy Reagan once wrote that nothing could prepare you for living in the White House. She was right, of course. But we had a head start, because we were fortunate to benefit from her proud example, and her warm and generous advice.”
Obama and other leadeing Democrats also paid tribute to a first lady who broke ranks with her party on gun control, arguing for stricter laws after a gunman tried to kill the president in 1981, and stem cell research, after her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the 1990s.
Former president Bill Clinton said he and his wife, Hillary Clinton, “were deeply saddened to learn of Nancy Reagan’s passing. Nancy was an extraordinary woman: a gracious first lady, proud mother, and devoted wife.”
“No matter your party or political ideology, this is a sad day for America,” said the Vermont senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. “Nancy Reagan was an exemplary first lady.”
Former president Jimmy Carter, the incumbent whom Ronald Reagan defeated to win the White House in 1980, said: “She will always be admired for her strength of conviction and her lifelong devotion to her husband.”
“You didn’t have to be a Reagan Republican to admire and respect Nancy Reagan,” said the New York senator Chuck Schumer. “She was a tower of strength alongside her husband, had strong beliefs, and was not afraid to chart her own course politically. She persuaded her husband to support the Brady Law [on gun control], and their advocacy was instrumental in helping us pass it.”
The Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, praised Reagan “as a partner, confidante and adviser to President Reagan, and as a leader and philanthropist in her own right”.
“We should also honor her passing by reflecting on the progress we can make when our elected officials work together across the aisle,” Wasserman Schultz said, “as the Reagan administration did on issues ranging from immigration to nuclear arms control, making our people more prosperous and our nation more secure.”
Wasserman Schultz’s counterpart in the Republican party, Reince Priebus, went further, saying Reagan “embodied what it means to represent America as first lady”.
The Reagan family released no statement following news of the death, but the former first lady’s adopted stepson, Michael, tweeted a brief remark: “I am saddened by the passing of my step mother Nancy Reagan. She is once again with the man she loved. God Bless.”
