Maureen Reagan

Maureen Elizabeth Reagan (January 4, 1941 – August 8, 2001) was the first child of Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman. Her siblings were Michael Reagan (adopted); a sister, Christine, who died shortly after birth, and—from her father's second marriage to Nancy Davis—Patti Davis and Ron Reagan.

Biography

Early life

Reagan graduated from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles and briefly attended Marymount University.

Acting career

Reagan pursued a career in acting in her youth, appearing in films such as Kissin' Cousins (1964) with Elvis Presley. She also sang and performed in sketches on a January 28, 1971 episode of The Dean Martin Show.

Political activities

Reagan spoke on behalf on Republican candidates throughout the country, including twenty appearances alone in 1967 for an unsuccessful Mississippi gubernatorial nominee, Rubel Phillips, a former segregationist who ran that year on a platform of racial moderation.

Reagan was the first daughter of a president to run for political office, but both of her attempts at election ended in defeat. She ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate from California in 1982 - Pete Wilson was the eventual winner - and in 1992 for California's 36th congressional district.

Although they maintained a united front, Maureen Reagan differed from her father on several key issues. Although reared Roman Catholic following her mother's conversion, she was pro-choice on abortion. She also held the belief that Oliver North should have been court-martialed.

After her father announced his diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in 1994, Maureen Reagan became a member of the Alzheimer's Association board of directors and served as the group’s spokeswoman. During her hospitalization for melanoma cancer, Maureen was only floors away from her father, who had suffered a severe fall.

Personal life

She was married three times:

• John Filippone, a policeman; they were married in 1961 and divorced the following year.
• David G. Sills, a lawyer and Marine Corps officer; they married on February 28, 1964; the couple divorced in 1967.
• Dennis C. Revell, whom she married on April 25, 1981. She and Revell had one daughter, Margaret "Rita" Mirembe Revell, who was born in Uganda. The Revells became Rita's guardians in 1994. They adopted her in 2001 Rita was the beneficiary of a private bill to facilitate her adoption as Maureen and Dennis Revell were unable to complete the necessary paperwork and other requirements by the Ugandan government, including a personal visitation to that country, due, in large part, to Maureen Reagan Revell's terminal cancer which claimed her life in 2001, aged 60.

Death

Maureen Reagan died in Granite Bay, California, on August 8, 2001, aged 60, from melanoma before her father's death. She was survived by her husband, her daughter, her parents, her step-mother, and her siblings. Maureen Reagan is interred at Calvary Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum in Sacramento, California.

Reagan volunteered with actor David Hyde Pierce, of TV's Frasier, at the Alzheimer’s Association. At her funeral on August 19, 2001, Pierce spoke to the gathering at Cathedral of Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento, California and recalled his friend's tireless devotion to fighting the mind-robbing illness. "When she was given lemons, she did not make lemonade. She took the lemons, threw them back and said, 'Oh, no you don't.'"