NASHVILLE - State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, who once worked on the advance team of Nancy Reagan in the 1980s, says the late First Lady was a "lady at all times."
"First lady is a very accurate term to describe Nancy Reagan," said the Chattanooga Republican of Mrs. Reagan, who died Sunday at age 94 of heart failure.
Gardenhire first met Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan during Reagan's unsuccessful GOP primary campaign in 1976.
After Reagan was elected president in 1980, Gardenhire in 1983 began working on the presidential advance team. In 1984 he switched over to working on the first lady's advance team. He worked one week each month until Reagan left office in early 1989 after serving two terms.
"She was first in Ronald Reagan's life and she put him first," Gardenhire said in a statement. "And, she was also a lady at all times. The first lady you saw on television is exactly who Nancy Reagan was when the doors were shut and the media were out of the room. She was a genuinely wonderful woman who was gracious, kind and thoughtful."
Gardenhire called Nancy Reagan a "woman of tremendous strength."
"This strength is not just reflected during the assassination attempt on her husband and through his long-term battle with Alzheimer's, but the encouragement she gave him every day to be the greatest leader of our time. I was blessed to have known her."