[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 7303]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       TEXAS MOURNS THE LOSS OF STATE REPRESENTATIVE IRMA RANGEL

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CIRO D. RODRIGUEZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 20, 2003

  Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, this week, the State of Texas lost one of 
its great voices, a leader with passion and energy working to improve 
the lives of the people she represented. We mourn the death of Texas 
Representative Irma Rangel who served nobly in the Texas Legislature 
for more than 25 years. She was a trailblazer as the first Hispanic 
woman to be elected to the Texas House of Representatives and the first 
woman to serve as chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. We 
will miss her strength, courage, vision, and her straight talk.
  A close friend, an advocate for poor families and women in South 
Texas, Representative Rangel consistently fought to improve the quality 
and accessibility of education for her constituents. Her advocacy 
helped create the school of pharmacy at Texas A&M University-
Kingsville, the first professional school in South Texas. She also was 
a driving force in securing passage of the 10 percent plan, which makes 
the top 10 percent of students in every high school eligible for 
admission to any state college or university, in the wake of the 
devastating Hopwood decision.
  Representative Rangel grew up in Kingsville, Texas. Her father picked 
cotton and learned to read and write on his own and later owned several 
businesses. In 1952, she received a degree in business administration 
from Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M University-Kingsville). She 
was a teacher for 14 years in schools in Robstown and Alice, Texas, in 
Venezuela and in Menlo Park, California. She earned a law degree from 
St. Mary University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas in 1969; she 
later served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Adrian A. Spears 
and as an assistant district attorney in Nueces County before opening 
her own law practice.
  During her lifetime, Representative Rangel received many professional 
honors. She was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1994. 
Other awards include the Legislator of the Year award from the Mexican 
American Bar Association of Texas; Women's Political Caucus' Texas 
Mexican-American Woman of the Year in 1979; Unsung Heroines Award in 
1991 from the Women's Advocacy Project; Latina Lawyer of the Year from 
the Hispanic National Bar Association; and Texas Woman of the Century 
from the Women's Chamber of Commerce of Texas.
  Her commitment to the people and families of South Texas, especially 
in improving access to higher education, has left a lasting legacy. 
Irma Rangel will be remembered as a woman who, through her lifetime of 
work and service, demonstrated her commitment to community. We will all 
miss her.

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