(September 13, 2006)—Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, the Waco High School and Baylor University graduate who gravitated toward politics after a year as a school teacher and rose to national political prominence, died Wednesday night at her home in Austin after a battle with esophageal cancer.

Richards 73, was diagnosed with cancer in March and had undergone chemotherapy treatments.

She was surrounded by her family when she died.

After graduating from Baylor, earning a teaching certificate from the University of Texas and marrying her high school sweetheart David, whom she later divorced, Richards taught school for a year in Austin, and then began to campaign for such progressive candidates as Ralph Yarbrough and Henry B. Gonzalez.

By the 1970s she was emerging as a political figure in her own right, helping lead efforts in Texas to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and winning a race against an incumbent Travis County Commissioner.

In 1982 she was elected State Treasurer, the first woman to win election to statewide office in half a century.

She won a second term without opposition in 1986, and then stepped into the national political spotlight at the Democratic National Convention in 1988, when she delivered the keynote address, which included the now-famous line about George H. W. Bush: “Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

Her parents still lived in the Waco area at the time and in a memorable moment of live local television, talked to their daughter via satellite later through the facilities of KWTX-TV.

Two years later, after GOP Gov. Bill Clements decided not to seek re-election, Ricahrds set her sights on the governor’s mansion, defeating Attorney General Jim Mattox and former governor Mark White in the Demoratic primary and multi-millionaire rancher Clayton Williams by a narrow margin in the general election.

During her term 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 Texas Rangers pinned stars on their first black and female officers.

She lost her bid for a second term to George W. Bush who parlayed his tenure in Austin into a succesful presidential bid.

She went on to work as a commentator for CNN and served as a senior adviser for an Austin-based consulting firm.

Richards is survived by her four adult children, who were with her through the day, Cecile, Daniel, Clark and Ellen.

The family requests that memorial gifts be made to the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders through the Austin Community Foundation, P.O. Box 5159, Austin, Texas 78763, 512-472-4483, or through the foundation’s Web Site..

More News >>Sports >> Weather >>