Reagan Aide Michael Deaver Dead at 69

Controversial advisor who managed Gipper's image falls to cancer
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 18, 2007 5:11 PM CDT
Reagan Aide Michael Deaver Dead at 69
President Ronald Reagan, right, waves to photographers as he and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Michael Deaver walk toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington in this Aug. 30, 1984 file photo. Deaver, one Ronald Reagan's closest advisers during in the White House and the...   (Associated Press)

The man who crafted Ronald Reagan’s public persona died today of pancreatic cancer at age 69, the AP reports. Michael Deaver, part of the so-called “troika” that directed the Reagan presidency, specialized in managing the president’s image in the media. His own image was damaged by a 1987 perjury conviction, which temporarily put a rift between him and the Reagans.

Nancy Reagan, now reconciled with Deaver, called him “the closest friend to both Ronnie and me in many ways,” saying he was “like a son” to her late husband. Deaver was modest about his role in Reagan’s ascendancy. “I've always said the only thing I did is light him well,” he once said. (More Ronald Reagan stories.)

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