CNN Tribute: Remembering Nancy Reagan

MALVEAUX (voice-over): "Ronnie and Nancy, it was truly an American love story."
REAGAN: "I can't imagine marriage being any other way but the way that Ronnie's and mine was. And I guess that's unusual."
KING: "Little bit of a miracle too, right?"
REAGAN: "Right."
KING: "Something in the Gods brought you together."
REAGAN: "Fortunately."
MALVEAUX: "A relationship not based on politics or power, but simply admiration and affection."
REAGAN: "Together we're going a long, long way."
MALVEAUX: "Born Anne Francis Robbins in New York City. She grew up in Chicago known by the nickname Nancy. As an adult, she headed west to Hollywood to become an actress."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "She signed with MGM. She became part of that family."
MALVEAUX: "At first Nancy Davis was busy. But in 1949 she found her name on a list of suspected communist sympathizers, in danger of being ostracized by the business. The person on the list turned out to be another actress with the same name, but Nancy wanted reassurance. She turned into a friend for help who set up a meeting with the president of the Screen Actors Guild, a dashing leading man named Ronald Reagan. And thus began one of Hollywood's and Washington's most enduring romances. In fact, one of her last screen appearances was playing opposite her future husband in a movie called "hellcats of the Navy." Soon after, they wed. They raised a family including her husband Patti and Ron Junior and her husband's two children, Maureen and Michael, from his previous marriage to Jane Wimen (ph).  In 1966, Ronald Reagan began a second as a full time politician and was elected governor of the nation's largest state, California. Nancy was always at his side and always gazing at him with that loving stare."
DUBERSTEIN: "It was for real. That wasn't an actress. The adoration that they had for each other."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Congratulations, sir." 
REAGAN: "I don't remember thinking anything except that, my God, here he is and he's president."
KING: "My Ronnie."
REAGAN: "My Ronnie."
MALVEAUX: "After her husband's presidential inauguration, Nancy Reagan's signature was appearing in designing gowns, especially red ones. She also redecorated the White House, both moves drawing heavy criticism. But she had her own special grit, especially after an assassin's bullet struck her husband. She never left the hospital. Few knew then how close the president came to dying. Just a couple of months into his first term."
KING: "Touch and go?"
REAGAN: "Yes, it was. I almost lost him."
MALVEAUX: "She also battled breast cancer and survived. Through it all, she had many admirers and some critics too [indecipherable], her husband's former chief of staff, Don Reagan (ph) who wrote a blistering book about her including the fact that she sometimes consulted an astrologer."
REAGAN: "He's chosen to attack my wife and I don't look kindly upon that."
MALVEAUX: "She also used her influence to launch an anti-drug program which was reduced to a simple phrase when a young girl asked for advice and the first lady said simply, just say no."
REAGAN: "I didn't mean that was the whole answer obviously, but it did serve a purpose."
MALVEAUX: "After she and her husband left Washington, she needed her stamina more than ever after Ronald Reagan was diagnosed the Alzheimer's."
REAGAN: "It's sad to see somebody you love and have been married for so long and you can't share memories. That's the sad part."
MALVEAUX: "Through it all, she never lost her optimism."
KING: "Do you ever feel that fate treated you badly?"
REAGAN:" No. When you balance it all out, I have had a pretty fabulous life."