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.
Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas, in 2004.
She died at home surrounded by her family, the spokeswoman said. Richards was found to have esophageal cancer in March and underwent chemotherapy treatments.
My earliest memory of Ann Richards was of her infamous speech at the 1988 Democratic Convention. There are people who will no doubt eulogize her more thoroughly and elegantly than I can. But Ann represented a seldom seen aspect of Texas politics, namely the scrappy, populist, take-no-shit Democrats that make the Bush clan look like the limp hypocrites that they are.
