Doria Palmieri was a clinical psychologist and the first wife of Ron Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. She worked in literary research and magazine publishing before her later career in psychology, and her marriage to Ron lasted from 1980 until her death in 2014.
She also appears in public records as Doria Reagan and Doria Palmieri Reagan. These names refer to the same person: Ronald Reagan’s daughter-in-law, rather than his wife.
What did Doria Palmieri do professionally?
Palmieri’s working life included both publishing and psychology. A January 1981 TIME profile of the Reagan children described her as a literary researcher. At that point, Ron was pursuing a professional ballet career, and the couple’s marriage was still new.
Her connection to Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine is documented by people who worked with her. In a 2016 recollection for Vanity Fair, former executive editor Bob Colacello recalled that Palmieri was working as his secretary when he met Nancy Reagan in February 1981.
Another former colleague, John O’Connor, described Palmieri as both a contributing editor and Colacello’s secretary in his account of working at Interview. His recollection adds a second firsthand account of her role at the magazine.
By 2009, Colacello’s reporting identified Palmieri as a psychologist living with Ron in Seattle. Taken together, these accounts establish a career chronology spanning literary research, magazine work and psychology, although they do not provide a detailed timeline of her professional training.
When did she marry Ron Reagan?
Palmieri and Ron Reagan married on November 24, 1980, in a private civil ceremony in a judge’s chambers in Manhattan.
The wedding occurred during the transition between Ronald Reagan’s election victory and his inauguration. Contemporary TIME coverage described the marriage as a surprise to Ron’s parents and placed it alongside his earlier decision to leave Yale and pursue ballet.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s family biography records Palmieri’s marriage to Ron as continuing until her death. Their relationship lasted more than 33 years.
What was her connection to the presidential family?
Palmieri became Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s daughter-in-law through her marriage. Official photographs document her presence at family occasions throughout the presidency.
The Presidential Library’s Reagan family photograph collection identifies her in the January 20, 1981, inaugural family portrait. She also appears beside Ron in the family’s Christmas portrait at the White House in December 1983 and in photographs from Thanksgiving at Rancho del Cielo in November 1984.
These records connect her to specific family gatherings rather than simply attaching the Reagan surname to her biography. The collection also includes her in the January 1985 inaugural family photograph.
O’Connor’s recollection provides a more personal view of that connection. He remembered Ron and Doria inviting him to meals at their New York apartment and later arranging for him to attend a small White House gathering during the second inauguration festivities. His account describes a friendship that continued beyond their shared workplace.
What is known about their later life?
The couple later lived in Seattle. In his 2009 Vanity Fair profile of Nancy Reagan, Colacello described Ron as living there with Doria, a psychologist.
A 2011 Washington Post profile reported that the couple had met at a Los Angeles dance studio and had no children.
When did Doria Palmieri die?
Palmieri died on March 24, 2014, from complications of a progressive neuromuscular disease, Ron Reagan told the Los Angeles Times.
Her marriage ended with her death, rather than divorce. “Late wife” or “first wife” therefore describes her relationship to Ron more accurately than “ex-wife.” The Presidential Library separately records Ron’s subsequent marriage to Federica Basagni in 2018.
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