Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Governor Ann Richards 1923-2006

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

-W. H. Auden

7 comments:

Karen Zipdrive said...

My first favorite memory of Ann Richards was back when I was a MSM reporter, interviewing her when she was running for governor.
I was there with an ABC affiliate TV reporter named Marilyn, who watched as I intervewed her, because TV people always watch the print people interviewing people because we ask smarter questions.
After Ms. Richards left, I said to Marilyn, "Holy crap, did you see how she was holding my hands in hers while she stared into my eyes? I felt hypnotized by those Windex blue eyes."
Marilyn said, "Yeah! I usually am the one to maintain eye contact when I'm interviewing people to see if they are shifty- but she completely stared me down!"

Memory #2 was when she was the keynote speaker at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in San Antonio.
The idiots who were running the dinner had a crappy looking drag queen introduce her to the audience, and she was so pissed that they'd relegate the job to a fuckin' drag queen, she was still muttering about it after dinner.
She was charming as hell, but you didn't want to piss her off.

Lulu Maude said...

We out-of-Texas folks remember her remark about Ginger Rogers doing everything Fred Astaire did only backwards and in high heels.

She was a great lady. Hope she bumps into my mama in the heavens. They'd have a ball.

Karen Zipdrive said...

If anyone wants to gauge how a REAL Texan acts and sounds, as opposed to a Connecticut, blueblooded carpetbagging drugstore cowboy, look no further than Ann Richards.
We lost a true American heroine yesterday, and the whole state is mourning.

Unknown said...

The country is in mourning KZ.

I still love the line about King George the First.."You have to forgive George, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth."--or something to that effect.

Karen Zipdrive said...

That speech at the '88 Democratic Convention was the best damned political speech I've ever heard.
After Ann told her mama she'd been selected as the keynote speaker, the mama said, "That's great, honey. Now, when are you coming to visit me?"
A few days later, her mama sent her a check for $100--to buy herself a new dress for the convention.

jordanrep.com/10522 said...

Here's the link to the Ann Richards' speech to the DNC in 1988. It's a great speech.

Ann Richards at the DNC in 1988

in.dog.neato said...

Amazing woman...

certainly knew how to talk circles round George...

I think the line was "You'll have to forgive George...he can't help it...he was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

That lady was a lady through and through...one of the very few in politics who posessed True Grit.