Via NyPo, from the new book, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by political journalist Kate Andersin Browe:
The relationship between Ronald and Nancy Reagan was a curious one. White House staffers had a front-row seat.
Usher Nelson Pierce recalls bringing some bags up to the couple’s room and having Nancy Reagan berate the president of the United States as he stood there shocked.
“She cussed him out for having the TV on,” he recalls in the book. “He said, ‘Honey, I’m just watching the news.’ As soon as she opened the door, she was into him like you wouldn’t believe.
Right in front of me. He was watching the 11 o’clock news. She thought he should be asleep.”
Perhaps no White House resident in the last half-century intimidated the residence staff like Nancy Reagan, who micromanaged with an iron fist and whom Payne referred to as “spoiled rotten.”
During preparations for a state dinner, executive pastry chef Roland Mesnier brought Mrs. Reagan dessert options while she ate lunch with the president.
After rejecting the third option she was brought, the president said, “Honey, leave the chef alone. That’s a beautiful dessert. Let’s do that.”
"‘Ronnie, just eat your soup. This is not your concern,’ she said. He looked down at his bowl and finished his soup without another word.”
When she finally decided on an elaborate series of sugar baskets for the guests, Mesnier informed her that the idea was too elaborate to produce in the time allotted, saying, “I only have two days left until the dinner.”
“She smiled and tilted her head to the right. ‘Roland, you have two days and two nights before the dinner.’ ”
While the president himself is remembered as always friendly and chatty with the staff — almost too much, as they had to slip away quietly if they saw him to avoid “getting trapped in a long conversation” — the first lady sought to limit this contact as best she could.
“She’d keep him the way she thought he should be,” said White House painter Cletus Clark. “She didn’t want him to associate with the help.”
Sounds about right. Wow this book was published a year before Nancy Reagan's death...I wonder if she was aware of what was written concerning her and whether she responded publicly to it.
ReplyDelete