Deborah Koepper was in her kitchen when she got a phone call about Nancy Reagan.
For anyone else, an out-of-the-blue call on a summer day asking for information about the former first lady would be unusual.
But for the longtime Palm Beach stylist and beauty expert who for four years during Ronald Reagan’s second presidential term was Nancy Reagan’s stylist and also did makeup and skin care for high-profile White House visitors, this was like so many other calls she’s received over the years.
That phone call came from Oklahoma, where the new film “Reagan,” a biographical feature about the former actor-turned two-term Republican president, was filmed. “Reagan” premieres Aug. 30 in theaters nationwide.
“That just always kind of happens to me,” she said of the call, laughing as she added that she’s still not sure who referred the film’s production team to her but suspects it was someone with the Nancy Reagan Foundation. “It’s well-known that I was Mrs. Reagan’s makeup and skin person.”
The first call from “Reagan” to Koepper came in the summer of 2022, about two years after the movie began filming in the Sooner State.
“Reagan” stars Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan and Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan. It tells the story of Ronald Reagan’s life through the lens of actor Jon Voight as a fictional former KGB agent who represents the number of Russian agents who were tasked with keeping tabs on Reagan from his time as a movie star through his presidency.
Before she opened Deborah Koepper Beauty more than three decades ago in Palm Beach — first at 215 Sunset Ave. and now at 265 Sunset — she was a highly sought-after makeup artist and aesthetician, so much so that she stepped away from a career in medicine when one of her mentors, a leading plastic surgeon, saw her potential in the beauty business.
She pivoted her studies to the renowned Von Lee International School of Aesthetics, where both her talents and her renown grew.
Soon after graduating, Koepper was invited to the White House by Robin Weir, Nancy Reagan’s personal hairstylist, who heard about the promising young stylist and saw potential in her work.
Weir called Koepper at her home in Maryland to offer her the position. “I go, ‘Is this a joke?'” she recalled. “He said, ‘No, we want you to come to work with us in the White House.'”
Koepper said she was able to share with the producers of “Reagan” some of the details about Nancy Reagan’s beauty regimen, including her weekly routine to get pin curls.
“She was elegant. She was wonderful,” Koepper said of the late first lady.
Koepper also shared the details she knew about some of the former president’s biggest moments in the spotlight — including who was behind one of Reagan’s most famous lines.
“Ken Duberstein (Reagan’s White House deputy chief of staff) is the one who told Mr. Reagan at the last minute to say, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,'” Koepper said, referring to Reagan’s historic 1987 comment during a speech at the Berlin Wall.
“I was always around everything that was being said,” Koepper noted, because of her position working with so many high-profile White House visitors and the first lady. It’s something that prompted Duberstein’s widow, fellow Palm Beacher Jackie Duberstein, to tell Koepper: “You were in the inner sanctum.”
One of Koepper’s favorite memories of working in the White House was one of Nancy Reagan’s birthdays, when Koepper styled Reagan before the first lady was set to wave to NBC viewers. Koepper got a first-hand look at how the press grilled Reagan, and how the first lady handled their questions with grace before turning to NBC’s cameras to smile and wave.
Koepper still has the dress she wore that day.
She fondly recalled Nancy Reagan as someone who “protected her own.”
“They gave her such a bad rap,” she said of the media’s portrayal of Reagan at the time. “But all she did was love him. She had no agenda. None.”
She recalled Ronald Reagan coming back to the White House after a long day and looking for Nancy to kiss her. “They were a true love story,” Koepper said.
While in Washington, D.C., she styled dignitaries including the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Princess Diana.
When she sees any promotional material for the film, she looks to see if Nancy Reagan’s hair has a pin curl, or if Margaret Thatcher’s hair is teased well.
Koepper is a star in her own right. Her work has been featured on hundreds of magazine covers, and she often is called on to weigh in on beauty trends and tips for major publications. In 2020, she was one of three guests on the Palm Beaches episode of “Destination America” on Discovery.
And in 2009, her work featured for the first time on the big screen when her cosmetics line was used to beautify the stars of “Confessions of a Shopaholic.”
Since opening in Palm Beach, she has hosted a number of celebrities, and counts many longtime Palm Beach families as both friends and clients.
When Thatcher — portrayed by Lesley-Anne Down in “Reagan” — stopped into Palm Beach soon after Koepper’s tenure in the Reagan administration, Koepper said she was surprised to see the former British prime minister in the famed Thomas Morrissey salon where she worked at the time.
“I was just like, ‘What are you doing?'” Koepper said, laughing, recalling her surprise at running into Thatcher.
She also continues to hone and develop her cosmetics and skin care line, Deborah Koepper Beauty.
And she continues to see herself as a conduit, connecting people over space and decades — in the same way she helped to connect “Reagan” to the finer details of its storied subjects.
“My work is all about relationships,” she said, adding, “There are no coincidences.”
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