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citizen <citizen@lbbas.com> wrote:
|| Former Texas Governor Ann Richards Dies
|| By KELLEY SHANNON, Associated Press Writer
|| Wednesday, September 13, 2006
||
|| Austin, Texas (AP) -- Former Gov. Ann Richards, the witty and
|| flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national
|| political
|| celebrity, died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer, a
|| family spokeswoman said. She was 73.
||
|| She died at home surrounded by her family, the spokeswoman
|| said.
|| Richards was found to have esophageal cancer in March and
|| underwent chemotherapy treatments.
||
|| The silver-haired, silver-tongued Richards said she entered
|| politics
|| to help others - especially women and minorities who were
|| often
|| ignored by Texas' male-dominated establishment.
||
|| "I did not want my tombstone to read, 'She kept a really
|| clean house.'
|| I think I'd like them to remember me by saying, 'She opened
|| government
|| to everyone,'" Richards said shortly before leaving office in
|| January 1995.
||
|| She was governor for one term, losing her re-election bid to
|| Republican George W. Bush.
||
|| Her family said as governor she was most proud of two actions
|| that
|| probably cost her re-election. She vetoed legislation that
|| would allow
|| people to carry concealed handguns, automatic weapons and
|| "cop-killer
|| bullets." She also vetoed a bill that would have allowed the
|| destruction of the environment over the Edwards Aquifer.
||
|| She grabbed the national spotlight with her keynote address
|| at the 1988 Democratic National Convention when she was the
|| Texas state
|| treasurer. Richards won cheers from delegates when she
|| reminded them
|| that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, "only
|| backwards
|| and in high heels."
||
|| Richards sealed her partisan reputation with a blast at
|| George H.
|| Bush, a fellow Texan who was vice president at the time:
|| "Poor George,
|| he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his
|| mouth."
||
|| Four years later, she was chairwoman of the Democratic
|| convention that nominated Bill Clinton for president.
||
|| Richards rose to the governorship with a come-from-behind
|| victory over millionaire cowboy Clayton Williams in 1990. She
|| cracked a
|| half-century male grip on the governor's mansion and
|| celebrated by
|| holding up a T-shirt that showed the state Capitol and read:
|| "A
|| woman's place is in the dome."
||
|| In four years as governor, Richards championed what she
|| called the "New Texas," appointing more women and more
|| minorities to state posts
|| than any of her predecessors.
||
|| She appointed the first black University of Texas regent; the
|| first
|| crime victim to join the state Criminal Justice Board; the
|| first
|| disabled person to serve on the human services board; and the
|| first
|| teacher to lead the State Board of Education. Under Richards,
|| the
|| fabled Texas Rangers pinned stars on their first black and
|| female
|| officers.
||
|| She polished Texas' image, courted movie producers,
|| championed the
|| North American Free Trade Agreement, oversaw an expansion of
|| the state
|| prison system, and presided over rising student achievement
|| scores and
|| plunging dropout rates.
||
|| She took time out to celebrate her 60th birthday by earning
|| her
|| motorcycle driver's license.
||
|| Throughout her years in office, her personal popularity
|| remained high.
|| One poll put it at more than 60 percent the year she lost to
|| Bush.
||
|| "I may have lost the race," Richards said after the defeat.
|| "But I
|| don't think I lost the good feelings that people have about
|| me in this
|| state. That's tremendously reassuring to me."
||
|| Richards went on to give speeches, work as a commentator for
|| CNN and
|| serve as a senior adviser in the New York office of Public
|| Strategies
|| Inc., an Austin-based consulting firm.
||
|| In her last 10 years, Richards worked for many social causes
|| and
|| helped develop the Ann Richards School for Young Women
|| Leaders,
|| scheduled to open in Austin in 2007.
||
|| Born in Lakeview, Texas, in 1933, Richards grew up near Waco,
|| married
|| civil rights lawyer David Richards and spent her early
|| adulthood
|| volunteering in campaigns and raising four children. She
|| often said
|| the hardest job she ever had was as a public school teacher
|| at Fulmore
|| Junior High School in Austin.
||
|| Richards served on the Travis County Commissioners Court in
|| Austin for
|| six years before jumping to a bigger arena in 1982. Her
|| election as
|| state treasurer made her the first woman elected statewide in
|| nearly 50 years.
||
|| But politics took a toll. It helped break up her marriage.
|| And public
|| life forced her to be remarkably candid about her 1980
|| treatment for alcoholism.
||
|| "I had seen the very bottom of life," she once recalled. "I
|| was so
|| afraid I wouldn't be funny anymore. I just knew that I would
|| lose my
|| zaniness and my sense of humor. But I didn't. Recovery turned
|| out to
|| be a wonderful thing."
||
|| The 1990 election was rough. Her Democratic primary opponent,
|| then-Attorney General Jim Mattox, accused her of using
|| illegal drugs.
|| Williams, an oilman, banker and rancher, spent millions of
|| his own
|| money on the race she narrowly won.
||
|| After her unsuccessful re-election campaign against Bush,
|| Richards
|| said she never missed being in public office.
||
|| Asked once what she might have done differently had she known
|| she was
|| going to be a one-term governor, Richards grinned.
||
|| "Oh, I would probably have raised more hell."
||
|| Richards' survivors include her four children, Cecile
|| Richards, Daniel Richards, Clark Richards and Ellen Richards;
|| their spouses; and eight grandchildren.
||
|| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A colorful character!

-- 
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bad, he should see how it is with representation." -- Rush
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