Celebrity Deathwatch: Maureen Reagan, daughter of former President Ronald Reagan, 60

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/08/08/maureen.reagan.obit/index.html

Maureen Reagan dies of cancer at 60
August 8, 2001 Posted: 6:50 PM EDT (2250 GMT)

GRANITE BAY, California (CNN) -- Maureen Reagan, daughter of former
President Ronald Reagan, died Wednesday at her home outside Sacramento after
a battle with cancer.

Reagan, 60, had been undergoing radiation treatments for a malignant
melanoma that had spread to her brain. She was the former president's
daughter with his first wife, actress Jane Wyman.

"Maureen had his gift of communication, his love of politics, and when she
believed in a cause, she was not afraid to fight hard for it," Nancy Reagan
said in a statement. "Ronnie and I loved Mermie very much. We will miss her
terribly."

Maureen Reagan had battled skin cancer since 1996 and learned last month the
tumors had spread to her brain. She is survived by her husband, Dennis
Revell, and her 16-year-old daughter, Rita.

Reagan was admitted to the hospital July 6. Doctors discovered two lesions
on her brain following tests to determine why she was suffering spasms and
mild seizures.

Former Reagan presidential aide Michael Deaver called her an "extremely
energetic" woman who "never hesitated to give you her opinion." But most of
all, Deaver said, she will be remembered for her undying love for her
father, who has battled Alzheimer's Disease since 1994.

"The thing was this loyalty for her father in whatever part of his life,
including the last part of her life, when she was so dedicated to finding a
cure for this terrible disease that had stricken her father and family,"
Deaver said.

Reagan was a member of the Alzheimer’s Association board of directors and
served as the group’s spokeswoman. She got involved with the group after her
father revealed he had been stricken with the disease.

She once wrote that a 1993 conversation with her father should have
triggered concern about his health. She said she was talking with her father
about a movie he made in the 1950s, "Prisoner of War."

"Finally he looked at me and said, 'Mermie, I have no recollection of making
that movie,'" she said.

Maureen Reagan called that moment her first "click of awareness" about her
father's illness. "No actor ever forgets a role," she wrote, "so I should
have realized something was wrong." A year later the former president was
diagnosed with Alzheimer's and withdrew from public life.

Ginny Helms with the Alzheimer's Association said Maureen Reagan helped
bring the need for a cure of the disease to the forefront, allowing
Americans to see how the disease "affects families and caregivers and what
they're going through."

"With Maureen you really got a sense of how it impacted her family, but she
also was just so gracious in how she handled it," Helms said.

President Bush, whose father served as Reagan's vice president, offered
condolences to Reagan's family Wednesday.

"Maureen was a devoted, caring daughter and mother," Bush said. "She fought
tirelessly to increase funding for Alzheimer's research and raise public
awareness of the disease."

Reagan's history of activism led her to run unsuccessfully for the Senate in
1982 and House in 1992, both in California. A one-time Democrat, she became
a Republican during her teen years and later pointed out that she had been a
Republican longer than her father. But unlike her father, she also supported
abortion rights: She called the issue one between "a woman and her God."

Probably the only thing resembling a public clash between Ronald and Maureen
Reagan came when Maureen entered the senatorial primary in California. Asked
his thoughts on his daughter's possible entry into elective politics, the
president replied that he hoped she would not do it.

This came across to many people, including Maureen, as a rebuke, but she
said the president clarified his comment in private and voted for his
daughter in the primary. She later served a term as co-chair of the
Republican National Committee.

Before her July hospitalization, Reagan told CNN's Larry King she had
rebounded after nearly dying from the skin cancer, which had spread to her
spine.

She said the treatment she had received over several months at the John
Wayne Cancer Institute of St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica,
California, "seems to have worked," and she was discharged in June. At one
point, her father was undergoing treatment for a broken hip in the same
facility at one point.

A public memorial service and mass was scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at St.
Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Sacramento. The service will be
followed by a private graveside service.

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