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That bites, I always held a small hope she would have run for national office.

My kinda person, Ann Richards. I do so dearly love a rebel and a humanist.

Wow, that's a bummer. Ann Richards made Texas kinda cool for a while.

Don't talk during the movie of Ann Richards will kick your ass!
-- Alamo Drafthouse no talking promo.

I wish she was the ex-governor that became president. She was great. She will be missed.

Ah, that's a shame - we lost a grand Texas lady. I shared your hope, edgeways. And at the very least, I wish she could be here to see her nemesis get his comeuppance.

As much as I will always hold California in contempt for inflicting Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan (and possibly Arnold Schwarzenegger?) on the national scene by first endorsing their candidacies for high office, Texas is the real head-scratcher.

How could Lone Star voters ever swap the honorable, smart and principled Richards for that lifelong failure Bush the Younger?

Well, crap.

The speech that wowed everybody.

Yeah, and now who's left to point to when you need to argue that Texas isn't all bigots and rednecks? WE've still got Molly Ivins, I guess, and Kinky Friedman....

She will be missed. She was definitely a person I felt glad to have in the universe, and the world was a better place for her presence.

Plain sailing, Ann.

She was one of my favorite people. RIP, Ann.

Ann was, and is, proof to the world that Texas is more diverse than the stereotypical "Texan".

She lived about a block away from the bookstore where I work. She was actually a semi-regular fixture in the place, and it was always funny to watch people's startled reactions at finding themselves standing in line alongside her. In all the time I've worked here, I never saw anyone approach her and ask for an autograph or handshake, most likely because she always had a no-nonsense air about her that said "Back off, chump, I've got places to go, people to see, keynote speeches to deliver".

To be honest, most employees were intimidated by her, and some of the younger staff actually dreaded having to assist her (to be fair, most of them were too young to have any idea who she was).

Still, in Austin she was almost universally respected for her hard-nosed toughness in the political arena, and loved by Dems for what she stood for: an unapologetic liberal who liked to mix it up with right wingers in general, and the Bush family in particular (e.g., "George Bush was born with a silver foot in his mouth.")

So long, Governor. Though we desperately need it, I think we will not see the likes of you in this state for many a long year.

i *hate* molly ivins--who strikes me as small-minded, petty and desperately clinging to being part of the in-crowd--but i was a big fan of Miss Ann and finally left texas shortly after she left office.

(i have no opinion of kinky friedman)

It's weird when news stories come on NPR while I'm waking up and I'm not sure if I dreamed them or if they were real. I heard this one this morning and I'm really sorry it's not a dream. She was cool.

i *hate* molly ivins

It's okay to hate her columns, crush-onastick, but don't extend that to the person. I knew her IRL in Austin, and she's very charming and kind. She'd bend over backwards for minor acquaintances (and, in fact, did so regularly).

Atom Eyes, what you said about seing Ann Richards in [redacted Austin bookstore]? I used to see her in the Whole Foods next door. And no, no one ever approached her. She didn't seem all that approachable, really. I also knew someone who worked in a fabric store where she was a regular. Said she wasn't really very easy to deal with.

I don't give a shit, though. She earned it.

nope, you're right, mudpuppie, i don't know her, so i don't actually hate her, but i hate her columns and i hate the person that i see in those columns.

(the only famous person i ever routinely saw in austin was al jurgensen. who lived in chicago--i'm pretty sure--at the time. go figger)

Well, there's a definite persona in those columns, and it's geared toward a quite large audience who don't really hear anyone else give that perspective. The schtick gets old, I'll grant you. But a lot of people like her because of the schtick.

Anywho.

I don't universally love Miz Ivins either, but the reason I mentioned her is that she still shows that TX isn't monolithically Republican, racist, and religiously conservative. Which is a message I end up delivering often to people who haven't been there and don't know better.

I definitely don't agree with everying Kinky Friedman stands for, either. I just enjoy anything at all that runs counter to the general impression.

Don't forget, Miko, we still have Jim Hightower and Willie too.

*fervently hopes for Willie Nelson's immortality*

And Kris Kristoffersen!