Former Texas governor Ann Richards, has died at 73, reportedly from esophageal cancer. It's what killed Humphrey Bogart. Heavy alcohol consumption (Richards sought treatment for alcoholism) and smoking are major risk factors.
The former schoolteacher, who got her motorcycle license on her 60th birthday (Yeah!!), died at home in Austin with her four children around her. She also had eight grandkids.
Goodbye to a tough, attractive, sharp-tongued broad, quintessentially Western. The best known of her bon mots, uttered in the keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic convention that made her nationally famous, referred to George H.W. Bush: "Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." Even funnier is her immortal rallying cry for feminine feminism: "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels."
Nice tribute. :)
Posted by: Sissy Willis | September 14, 2006 at 08:28 AM
As someone who voted for GHWB (twice, even) I can honestly say that was a great line. I may not have always agreed with Ann Richards' politics, but she seemed like a genuinely likeable and funny person -- someone you'd have liked to have a drink with.
I think you described her well.
May she rest in peace.
Posted by: Pastor_Jeff | September 14, 2006 at 10:31 AM
She had her motorcycle license? Wow!
Posted by: nappy40 | September 14, 2006 at 11:56 AM
I forgot that she was behind the Ginger Rogers line. That was a real classic. She reminded me a lot of one of my grandmothers, though my grandmother was as rabid a Republican as she was a Democrat.
Posted by: PatHMV | September 14, 2006 at 02:10 PM
One of my political heroes. I worked on her failed 1994 campaign and it's the only campaign I've ever worked on where I truly felt passionate about the candidate. Maybe it was because I was only 20 and still had the idealism of a college student, but I'd like to think it was her. She inspired not with empty rhetoric but with sharp ideas, an open heart and a tough mind.
She will be missed but never forgotten.
Posted by: Alan | September 14, 2006 at 02:16 PM
I voted for her every time I had the chance in Texas, and mourned her loss to Bush, who of course screwed up that job just as much as he screwed up every other job he's ever had. She was a great woman, and an honest politician.
PS: I love those quotes and just added them to my permanent collection, thanks for posting them!
Posted by: sleipner | September 14, 2006 at 02:34 PM