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American Morning

Maureen Reagan Being Remembered This Morning as Tireless Crusader Against Alzheimer's Disease

Aired August 09, 2001 - 10:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Maureen Reagan is being remembered this morning as a tireless crusader against Alzheimer's Disease. Reagan was the oldest child of former President Ronald Reagan and his first wife, actress Jane Wyman. Maureen Reagan died yesterday at her home near Sacramento after a long battle with skin cancer. In her final years, she worked very hard to spread the word about Alzheimer's, the disease that sidelined her father.

Joining us now to now talk about Maureen Reagan, a good friend of hers, Elaine Crispen-Sawyer. She is former press secretary for Nancy Reagan.

Elaine, good morning. Thanks for joining us.

Good morning, Daryn.

Tell us a little bit about this woman's passion, especially for politics and causes that she believed in.

ELAINE CRISPIN-SAWYER, FMR. NANCY REAGAN PRESS SECY.: It's a good word to describe her. She was passionate, energetic. Everyone loves to live, but she certainly loved life. All of her different causes, it's so ironic that she battled for so many other people, for Alzheimer's, for women's issue, for the Republican Party. And the battle that she really would have loved to have won, she lost, over melanoma. But it's a sad, sad time right now in California. I know that she'll be missed certainly by her husband, certainly by their daughter, a teenager that -- which is another example of Maureen.

KAGAN: I want to talk about her daughter just for a moment. I think that a lot of people were aware that Maureen Reagan was an adopted child...

CRISPIN-SAWYER: No, Maureen was not adopted.

KAGAN: No, she was not. But she did become an adopted mother.

CRISPIN-SAWYER: Yes, yes.

KAGAN: Right.

CRISPIN-SAWYER: She adopted a teenager when she was in her early '50s, which again, just says something about Maureen's energy and zest for life, a little girl, and now she's a 16-year-old whose lost her mother, but Dennis, the husband, will take great care of her, and she has a loving grandmother, in the form of Nancy Reagan. So you know, it's just a sad, sad time.

KAGAN: Let's talk a little bit in the time that we have left about Maureen's politics. She liked to boost that she became a Republican long before her father did.

CRISPIN-SAWYER: Right.

KAGAN: But also not shy of talk about the differences with her father on certain political issue, like abortion rights and like supporting the ERA?

CRISPIN-SAWYER: Correct, and I think that they really enjoyed -- they didn't have their discussions in the effort to change one another's minds, and certainly if one was able to sway a little bit, one likes that in the debate, but they just enjoyed their debates, their conversations. They were both -- had great resolve. She inherited not only his skill of communication and his love of politics, but also a very, very firm resolve.

When either President Reagan or Maureen Reagan had an issue, they fought hard for it, and they enjoyed, I think, the debates between each other.

KAGAN: And in our final moments, if you could share what will be one of the most favorite memories of your old friend?

CRISPIN-SAWYER: Well, one little story, very small. But again, the way that she took care of things. I had a terrible backache one day, and she was visiting in the East Wing or come to one of the meetings, and there -- and I said something about this backache, and she said, lay down on the floor, and I'll take care of it for you, and she rubbed it right out of my back, the kinds of things that she would do all of the time. Give you a right in her motorcade if she was going somewhere. You know, she was just a great person, and she'll be really, really missed.

KAGAN: That she will. We appreciate you sharing her legacy and also your memories with us this morning.

Elaine Crispen-Sawyer, thanks for joining us.

CRISPIN SAWYER: Thank you, Daryn.

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