Edith Prescott Davis

Edith Prescott Luckett Davis was a film and Broadway stage actress in the 1910s and 1920s. She was the mother of Nancy Reagan, First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, and mother-in-law of US president Ronald Reagan.

Edith Luckett, nicknamed "Lucky", was born in Petersburg, Virginia, the ninth and youngest child of Sarah Frances (Whitlock) and Charles Edward Luckett. She grew up in Washington, D.C., as her father worked for the Adams Express Company. Known for her vivacious and outgoing personality and style.

Luckett began acting at the age of 15. She appeared in several films, including The Other Girl (1915). She acted on stage, most notably on Broadway but also with several regional stock companies. She performed and became friends with such stars as Walter Huston, George M. Cohan and Spencer Tracy. Other friends in the business included Zasu Pitts, Louis Calhern, David Belasco and Alla Nazimova. Her last acting role was in 1928, with Walter Huston and Kay Francis in Elmer the Great.

Luckett married Kenneth Seymour Robbins of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1916. The couple had one daughter, christened Anne Frances Robbins, but known as Nancy. Luckett and Robbins separated soon after Nancy's birth, and later divorced. In order for Luckett to support herself and her daughter, she chose to resume her stage career, and arranged to have her daughter live with her sister's family in Bethesda, Maryland, while she toured the East Coast with acting troupes. She would visit her daughter in Maryland when time allowed.

While on a voyage to England in 1929, Luckett met Loyal Edward Davis, a pioneering Chicago neurosurgeon. The two were married on May 21, 1929, and moved to Chicago with Nancy. Davis adopted Nancy when she was 14, legally changing her name to Nancy Davis. Dr. Davis had one son, Richard, from a previous marriage, who came to live with the family. In 1932, Loyal Davis was appointed Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, a position he held until 1963.

Edith Davis gave up her acting career to become a housewife. She became heavily involved in community and charity work; she organized the gift shop and served on the board at Passavant Hospital and worked with the Women's Division of the Chicago Charity Fund, eventually becoming chairwoman in serving in that position from 1938 to 1963. While living in Chicago, she saw Nancy move to California, become an actress in her own right, and marry fellow actor Ronald Reagan; Reagan would send flowers to Edith on Nancy's birthday to thank her for giving birth to Nancy.

Upon her husband's retirement as Chief of Surgery in 1963, the couple moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she volunteered time to healthcare organizations, including the United Cerebral Palsy Crusade. She also sat on the board of the American Cancer Society. In 1983, she was awarded the Arizona Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of her service to the mentally retarded. The award was later renamed the Edith Davis Award.

Dr. Loyal Davis died in 1982 of congestive heart failure, after 53 years of marriage. Upon his death, Edith moved from her home to a smaller apartment in Phoenix. She died on October 26, 1987, aged 99, from a stroke, while her 66-year-old daughter was recovering from breast cancer surgery earlier in the month. Her funeral was held in Phoenix, attended by her daughter, Nancy, who was then First Lady of the United States; son-in-law Ronald Reagan, then-President of the United States; and a stepson, Richard Davis, among others. The crypt of Edith and Loyal Davis is located in the marble mausoleum in Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery in Phoenix.