The New York Times published a remarkable obituary Saturday of Joan Quigley, who served as an official astrologer of sorts to First Lady Nancy Reagan during her husband’s presidency. She was once described by a top Reagan aide described as the administration’s “most closely guarded secret.”

Quigley died Tuesday at the age of 87 in San Francisco.

Here is how the former chief of staff described Quigley’s role in the Reagan White House, via the Times:

He said an astrologer had set the time for summit meetings, presidential debates, Reagan’s 1985 cancer surgery, State of the Union addresses and much more. Without an O.K. from the astrologer, he said, Air Force One did not take off.

She was kept on a $3,000 a month retainer and spoke with Mrs. Reagan two or three times a day, according to the Times. Private phone lines were set up for her at the White House and Camp David.

Read the whole remarkable account, written by the Times’s Douglas Martin, here.