Brian Williams to Anchor Special Coverage Honoring Nancy Reagan on MSNBC

MSNBC will commemorate the funeral of former first lady Nancy Reagan with special coverage celebrating her life and legacy on Friday. Brian Williams anchors from MSNBC headquarters in New York beginning at 1 p.m. ET as friends, family, and dignitaries gather to pay their respects.

Andrea Mitchell, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," will anchor her program live from 12-1 p.m. ET outside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA.

Mitchell and Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball" and author of several presidential biographies, will contribute throughout the afternoon from Simi Valley, joined there by presidential historian Michael Beschloss; former speechwriter to President Reagan Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA); Craig Shirley, author of three books on President Reagan; and others.

Williams will be joined in New York by Laurence Leamer, author of the Reagan biography, "Make-Believe: THE LIFE of Nancy and Ronald Reagan."

Coverage continues at 7 p.m. ET as Matthews anchors "Hardball" live from the Reagan Library.