Cancer claims Maureen Reagan

MAUREEN Reagan, 60, daughter of former US President Ronald Reagan, is dead. She had adopted a 16-year-old Ugandan orphan, Margaret Rita Mirembe. Maureen died at her home in Sacramento, California, on Wednesday after a five-year battle with malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, a statement from her husband, Dennis Revell, said. The Revells with assets worth about US$2m, had no biological children. In 1994 they adopted Mirembe who was renamed Rita Revell. Rita was residing with the family in Granite Bay, California and studying at a private parochial high school in Sacramento. US President George W. Bush, whose father served as Reagan’s vice-president before entering the Oval Office himself, said he and wife Laura were “deeply saddened” by the death. “Maureen was a devoted, caring daughter and mother,” Bush said in a statement from Texas where he is vacationing. “She fought tirelessly to increase funding for Alzheimer’s research and raise public awareness of the disease,” he said, adding, “Our thoughts and prayers are with Maureen’s husband, Dennis, their daughter, Rita, and the entire family.” Maureen in July initiated a process through a private Bill in the US Congress to adopt Mirembe in accordance with American immigration law. The bill sought to grant Mirembe permanent residence in the US.