Maureen Reagan

A president's daughter whose political ambitions went unfulfilled, Maureen Reagan established her legacy as a tireless crusader against the disease that forced her father into seclusion. The oldest child of former President Reagan and his first wife, actress Jane Wyman, traveled the nation nearly nonstop in the final years of her life, ignoring her own declining health as she spread the word about Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers. "I consider this his unfinished work," she once told the Sacramento Bee. "If this were any other disease, my father would be out telling people what they needed to know." On Wednesday, at age 60, she lost her own health battle _ against skin cancer. Maureen Reagan died at her home in Granite Bay, near Sacramento. Her death brought an outpouring of condolences from former presidents, political officials and Alzheimer's activists. "Maureen was a devoted, caring daughter and mother. She fought tirelessly to increase funding for Alzheimer's research and raise public awareness of the disease," President Bush said from Crawford, Texas, where he is vacationing. The former president's daughter was diagnosed with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, five years ago. Despite intensive chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments, and a period of apparent remission, the disease had recently spread to her brain. "Ronnie and I loved Mermie very much. We will miss her terribly," her stepmother, Nancy Reagan, said in a statement. The former first lady broke the news to her husband at their Bel-Air home. A Republican since childhood _ she knocked on doors for Dwight Eisenhower's 1952 presidential campaign _ Maureen Reagan co-chaired the Republican National Committee from 1987 to 1989 and twice sought public office herself. She lost a primary election bid for a U.S. Senate seat from California to fellow Republican Pete Wilson in 1982 and finished second in a 1992 Republican primary for a California congressional seat. "Maureen was great fun," said Wilson, who served as both a senator and governor of California. "Outspoken and articulate, blessed with boundless energy, she crammed a lot of living and a lot of laughter into her too-short 60 years." Blessed with a gift of gab that some said was even more impressive than her father's, Maureen Reagan was an outspoken feminist who sometimes clashed with her father politically. Issues they never agreed on included abortion rights and an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. Despite their disagreements, they were remembered as fiercely loyal to one another. "Like all fathers and daughters, there was a unique bond between them," Nancy Reagan said Wednesday. "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." "Theirs was a mutual revering, and heaven help any critic who took on President Reagan in her presence," said Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. Maureen Reagan became a national spokeswoman for the Alzheimer's Association after her father announced in 1994 that he had the disease and was beginning "the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life." She wrote movingly of her father's mental decline in an essay in Newsweek magazine last year: "Earlier in the disease we did jigsaw puzzles, usually animal scenes: a farmyard, horses in a meadow, a jungle scene. We started with 300-piece puzzles and worked our way down to 100. Unfortunately, he can't do that anymore." Although her father often did not recognize her, she said a good visit was marked by his smiles and laughter. "There's nothing nicer than the sound of his laughter," she told the Los Angeles Times last year. She is survived by her husband, Dennis C. Revell; their 16-year-old daughter, Rita, a Ugandan girl they adopted in 1995; her father, mother, stepmother; brother Michael Reagan; half-sister Patti Davis and half brother Ronald Reagan Jr. A public memorial service and Mass were scheduled for Aug. 18 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Sacramento, followed by a private graveside service. ___ On the Net: Reagan Library official Web site: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu Alzheimer's Association: http://www.alz.org American Academy of Dermatology information on melanoma: http://www.skincarephysicians.com/melanomanet