Nancy Reagan maid returned to work at the White House. In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to visit Washington, D.C. since Nikita Khrushchev made the trip in 1959 at the height of the Cold War. Nancy was in charge of planning and hosting the important and highly anticipated state dinner, with the goal to impress both the Soviet leader and especially his wife Raisa Gorbacheva. After the meal, she recruited pianist Van Cliburn to play a rendition of "Moscow Nights" for the Soviet delegation, to which Mikhail and Raisa broke out into song. Secretary of State George P. Shultz
Raisa Aronova away in December 1982 and was buried in the Kuntsevo Cemetery. Raisa Aronova Raisa Yermolayevna Aronova (; 10 January 1920 – 20 December 1982) was a Soviet Polikarpov Po-2 navigator and pilot in World War II of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, later renamed 46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment. She received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 15 May 1946, for completing 960 night bombing missions against Axis forces in the war. Aronova was born in 1920 to a Russian peasant family; her father was a railway employee. After graduating from secondary school she entered the Kalinin