WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor today honoring former First Lady, Nancy Davis Reagan:

“Nancy Reagan was one of the most powerful First Ladies in recent memory.

“Sometimes she spoke out — for instance, on issues like substance abuse — but more often Nancy wielded her power with calm confidence and quiet steel. It was an attitude that helped guide Nancy through so many challenges in her own life.

“Getting an acting career off the ground. Leaving it to raise a family. Riding the ups and downs of a life in politics.

“Watching her husband brave the bullet of a would-be assassin, or face the threat of cancer — and then confront that reality herself.

“Nancy Reagan may have been a star in Hollywood and a force in the rough and tumble of Washington, but it was the challenges to come that would reveal her true strength. In 1994 former President Reagan addressed a letter to his fellow Americans. ‘I now begin the journey,’ he wrote, ‘that will lead me into the sunset of my life.’ Nancy shared her very personal experience with that cold and cruel disease, telling Americans of the ‘terrible pain and loneliness’ that accompanied Alzheimer’s ‘very long goodbye.’

“But she never gave in or gave up.

“Nancy was strong for her husband, she was a rock for her family, and she was an example for a nation that looked to her for inspiration.

“One day, after many long and difficult years, Ronald Reagan opened his eyes and looked at Nancy. ‘He hadn’t done that in well over a month,’ she recalled. ‘But he looked at me and closed his eyes. And went. And that was a wonderful gift.’

“We felt Nancy’s immense pain when she leaned over his casket, kissed it, and mouthed her tearful farewell.
 
“From Morning in America to a sunset in Simi Valley, the Reagan love story was classic Hollywood but it was also unmistakably human. Nancy said her life had only really begun after she met Ron. Now she joins her best friend to dance together once more.

“We in the Senate join our nation in mourning the loss of Nancy Reagan. We offer every condolence to the family members left behind.

“And let us remember the rest of what President Reagan wrote to the nation in 1994. ‘I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life,’ is what he wrote then, but ‘I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.’”