Ex-Texas governor Ann Richards dead at 73

Posted:
Sep 13, 2006

Former Texas governor Ann Richards, who enjoyed a voice role as saloon owner "Annie" in the 2004 Disney feature film Home On The Range, died Wednesday night at 73.

The outspoken, silver-haired Democrat died at home, surrounded by her family, after fighting a battle with cancer, said a family spokeswoman.

Richards underwent chemotherapy treatments after she was found to have esophageal cancer in March.

Serving from 1991 to 1995, she was a one-term governor, losing her attempt at re-election to Republican George W. Bush.

"It's about cows," Richards told columnist Liz Smith in 2003 about Home On The Range. "I play a woman named Annie. She's a barmaid. But I'd have been happy to play a cow."

Richards had the occasional TV guest role, portraying herself in Hank and the Great Glass Elevator, a 2001 episode of King of the Hill. In it, Bill meets the former governor and stands up to his ex-wife Lenore.

Born Dorothy Ann Willis in Lakeview, Texas on September 1, 1933, she gained national fame during her keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. She said of the senior George Bush, then the vice-president and running for president: "Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

She was also cheered by delegates when she observed that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, "only backwards and in high heels."

"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 soon before she left office in January 1995.

Richards said she got into politics to help others, particularly women and minorities who received short shrift at the time.

In 1990, she was elected governor over millionaire cowboy Clayton Williams, becoming the first woman in 50 years to hold the state's top office. She celebrated by holding up a T-shirt that depicted the state Capitol and read: "A woman's place is in the dome."

During her term as governor, Richards promoted the "New Texas." She named more women and more minorities to state posts than any of her predecessors.

In 1992, she chaired the Democratic convention that nominated Bill Clinton for president.

However, Richards' life was marred by personal problems. In 1980, she went public with her alcoholism, acknowledging that it was a factor in the end of her marriage after 30 years. She credited her new-found sobriety in part to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Richards graduated from Waco High School in 1950 and received a BA from Baylor University in 1954. She also attended the University of Texas.

A teacher at Fulmore Junior High School in Austin from 1955 to 1956, she was the state treasurer from 1983 until her election as governor.

In 2003, she wrote the memoir I'm Not Slowing Down: Winning My Battle with Osteoporosis with Richard U. Levine.

She was married to David Richards from 1950 to 1980. Their daughter Cecile is president of the Planned Parenthood Federation. Their other children were daughter Ellen and sons Dan and Clark.