Editing Nancy Reagan (section)

=== Her husband's protector ===
Reagan assumed the role of unofficial "protector" for her husband after the [[Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan|attempted assassination of him]] in 1981.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/his-fierce-protector-nancy/|title=His Fierce Protector: Nancy|first=David|last=Hancock|access-date=November 15, 2007|date=June 5, 2004|publisher=CBS|archive-date=January 12, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112202511/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/05/national/main621274.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> On March 30 of that year, President Reagan and three others were shot by the attempted assassin 25-year old [[John Hinckley, Jr]] as they left the [[Washington Hilton]] hotel. Nancy was alerted and arrived at [[George Washington University Hospital]], where the President was hospitalized. She recalled having seen "emergency rooms before, but I had never seen one like this – with my husband in it."<ref>Reagan, Nancy (1989), p. 5.</ref> She was escorted into a waiting room, and when granted access to see her husband, he quipped to her, "Honey, I forgot to duck", borrowing the defeated boxer [[Jack Dempsey]]'s jest to his wife.<ref name="NoonanPBS">{{cite web|url= https://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/reagan.html|author= Noonan, Peggy|title= Character Above All: Ronald Reagan essay|publisher= PBS|access-date= August 15, 2007|archive-date= October 11, 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071011120557/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/essays/reagan.html|url-status= dead}}</ref>

An early example of the first lady's protective nature occurred when Senator [[Strom Thurmond]] entered the president's hospital room that day in March, passing the [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] detail by claiming he was the President's "close friend", presumably to acquire media attention.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://web1.millercenter.org/poh/transcripts/ohp_2002_1024_friedersdorf.pdf|title= Final Edited Transcript: Interview with Max Friedersdorf|access-date= October 20, 2007|date= October 24–25, 2002|publisher= Miller Center of Public Affairs|page= 60|quote= Mrs. Reagan was all upset, of course. He said that Senator [Strom] Thurmond had come over to the hospital and had talked his way in, past the lobby, up to the President's room – he's in intensive care, tubes coming out of his nose and his throat, tubes in his arms and everything – and said that Strom Thurmond had talked his way past the secret service into his room and Mrs. Reagan was outraged, distraught. She couldn't believe her eyes. He said, 'You know, those guys are crazy. They come over here trying to get a picture in front of the hospital and trying to talk to the President when he may be on his deathbed.|archive-date= February 5, 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160205191955/http://web1.millercenter.org/poh/transcripts/ohp_2002_1024_friedersdorf.pdf|url-status= live}}</ref> Nancy was outraged and demanded that he leave.<ref name="Beschloss, Michael p. 284" /> While the President recuperated in the hospital, the first lady slept with one of his shirts to be comforted by the scent.<ref name="Beschloss, Michael p. 284" /> When Ronald Reagan was released from the hospital on April 12, she escorted him back to the White House.

Press accounts [[Framing (social sciences)|framed]] Reagan as her husband's "chief protector", an extension of their general initial framing of her as a helpmate and a Cold War domestic ideal.<ref>Burns, Lisa (2008), pp. 130, 138–139.</ref> As it happened, the day after her husband was shot, she fell off a chair while trying to take down a picture to bring to him in the hospital; she suffered several broken ribs, but was determined to not reveal it publicly.<ref>Brower, Kate Andersen (2015), p. 160.</ref>