[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18206-18208]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING ANN RICHARDS

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to remember a very good 
friend and a wonderful woman whom Senator Lincoln spoke about--and I 
know others today have--very eloquently on the floor, and that is our 
good, good friend Ann Richards, the former Texas Governor and 
treasurer, a woman who had extraordinary abilities. Her intelligence, 
her tenacity, and her hard work, are well known. But we all know of her 
sense of humor, her wit, her ability to make us smile. Even when we 
were trying to struggle through a difficult issue or were upset, she 
was able to put this in a particular frame that would allow people to 
in fact smile and laugh while they were trying to work through things 
together.
  I was very pleased to have Ann Richards come to Michigan on more than 
one occasion to be able to help me in my effort at running for office. 
It was always a wonderful time. People were so excited when I would say 
that Governor Ann Richards was coming to Michigan. There would be 
excitement from women young and old, as well as from men. We always 
drew a great crowd. She always lived up to every expectation, in terms 
of the way she spoke about life, about what people are concerned about, 
and a combination of both outrage at those unfair things and things 
that ought to be changed, coupled with that sense of humor about what 
we go through in our daily lives, speaking about things that we could 
all relate to so well, with that wonderful sense of humor.
  She once told me when I was working hard and had too many things to 
do in a day: Debbie, you should stop right now and just focus on what 
is next and the rest of it will take care of itself. Do your best and 
focus on the next hour, the next challenge, and that is how you get 
through effectively in life.
  Those words of encouragement and advice have stuck with me to this 
day. Whenever I get overwhelmed, I think of Ann Richards' voice in my 
ear saying: Stop and take a breath and focus on what is right in front 
of you and do your best, and everything else will work out just fine.

[[Page 18207]]

  We all know she was a trailblazer in Texas politics and an 
inspiration to all of us who have run for office and been elected to 
office around the country. I will never forget when she was elected. I 
had the opportunity to attend her inaugural ball--I should say series 
of balls, where everybody was all dressed up and wearing cowboy boots, 
and how I watched Ann, with such relish, go from ball to ball, event to 
event, and watched her go down the streets in the parades in Austin 
that day. There was such excitement, and you could tell she was 
thrilled. She loved Texas and she relished the opportunity to serve 
Texas as its Governor. It was such a wonderful weekend of events. I 
will always remember that.
  There are so many different quotes from her that we all remember and 
quote ourselves. One of my favorites is the often-repeated line about 
Fred Astaire. She said:

       Sure, he was great; but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did 
     everything he did backwards and in high heels.

  That was Ann Richards, speaking in a way that made a point, but made 
everyone smile at the same time.
  In many ways, we kind of came up through politics together. We were 
both in county commissions in the mid-1970s. We both ended up in 
Statewide elected office, and we both loved and love our States with a 
great, great passion.
  Despite all of the fame--and she was famous, a well-known person, 
revered around the country--she was somebody who could walk into any 
city in the country and have people recognize her and have great 
respect for her. But what I admired most was how down to earth she was. 
Even though this is a person who was very well known, she was somebody 
who was always there with a smile and would say ``How are you doing?'' 
She would talk to the wait staff in a restaurant, as well as the people 
in her party, or would speak to whomever was around her.
  She began her career as a teacher. She once said that teaching was 
the hardest work she had ever done and, according to her, it remained 
the hardest work she had done to date. She was a great teacher, but not 
only in the classroom. Ann Richards was a teacher to me--a teacher as 
it relates to women having courage, stepping out, being willing to take 
the slings and arrows that come with the rough and tumble world of 
politics, standing up for what she believed in, always being accessible 
and available to reach out and help those of us who asked for her help, 
and always relishing life to the fullest.
  Ann Richards will be remembered. We are so grateful for her life, for 
her service, and for who she was. My thoughts and prayers go out to her 
children and her grandchildren.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I join my colleagues and many others 
across America to express our sadness over the loss of one great 
person: former Texas Governor Ann Richards. There she was, with her 
Dairy Queen hairdo, her thick Texas twang, and her lightning fast wit. 
She was beloved and recognized by everybody. When she would show up on 
Capitol Hill, people couldn't wait to come up and shake hands and see 
that beautiful smile. Several times she came by my office, and our 
visit always started with a laugh and ended with a laugh. She was just 
a great person to be around.
  She was born Dorothy Ann Willis in 1933, in Lakeview, a farming 
community near Waco. She was the only child of Iona and Cecil Willis. 
They came from the tiny towns of Bugtussle and Hogjaw.
  At Waco High School, she dropped her first name and became just Ann. 
She also became the Texas state debate champion.
  During her senior year, she visited Washington as a delegate to Girls 
Nation and, on a trip to the White House, shook hands with President 
Truman, one of her all time heroes.
  Despite her natural political talents, it never occurred to Ann 
Richards to run for political office herself until later in life.
  In her 20s, she taught social studies in an Austin middle school for 
less than 2 years before she was required to resign because she was 
pregnant with her first child. She later described teaching as ``the 
hardest work I had ever done.''
  In 1975, her husband, civil rights attorney David Richards, was 
approached about running for Travis County commissioner. He turned it 
down and said he wasn't interested, but Ann Richards was.
  She won that race and went on to serve two terms as a Travis County 
commissioner, 8 years as Texas state treasurer, and 4 years as her 
State's governor.
  Her 1990 election as Governor--a come-from-behind victory--made her 
the first woman elected governor in Texas in nearly 60 years, and the 
first woman to win that office without following her husband in.
  As Governor, Ann Richards pursued a progressive agenda and appointed 
an unprecedented number of women and minorities to posts they never 
would have dreamed of in Texas Government.
  Her family said that, as Governor, she was most proud of two actions 
that probably cost her re-election. She vetoed legislation that would 
have allowed people to carry concealed handguns. She also vetoed a bill 
that would have destroyed an aquifer that supplies water for much of 
south central Texas. She paid the political price.
  Years later, when a reporter asked her what she might have done 
differently had she known she was going to serve only one term as 
Governor, Ann Richards grinned and replied: ``Oh, I would probably have 
raised more hell.''
  She was not just a political hero. In speaking openly about her 
struggle with alcoholism, her decision, in 1980, to get sober, and the 
joy she discovered in sobriety, Ann Richards was also a source of 
inspiration as well to countless others who struggle with addiction.
  Ann Richards rose to national prominence when she gave the keynote 
address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. People remember a 
lot of things she said in that address.
  That address includes some immortal lines, including her famous 
description of gender inequality: ``Ginger Rogers did everything that 
Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.''
  In other lines from that speech that are not as well remembered, Ann 
Richards talked about why she believed in government.
  She said:

       I was born during the Depression in a little community just 
     outside Waco, and I grew up listening to Franklin Roosevelt 
     on the radio. It was back then that I came to understand the 
     small truths and the hardships that bind neighbors together. 
     Those were real people with real problems, and they had real 
     dreams about getting out of the Depression.

  She said she could still hear the voices of those ``people who were 
living their lives as best they could.''
  She said: ``They talked about war and Washington and what this 
country needed. They talked straight talk.''
  In politics and in her life after politics, Ann Richards used her 
power to try to solve the real problems of real people and enable them 
to live and raise their families with dignity and hope.
  I'll close with one more story from Wayne Slater. He recalls that, 
during a public appearance several years after leaving office, Ann 
Richards was asked about her legacy.
  She replied:

       In looking back on my life, I could of course say the 
     predictable thing: that the greatest thing I've ever done is 
     bear my children and have grandchildren, and all that kind of 
     stuff. But the reality is that the greatest part of my life 
     was the opportunity to be in public service--to make a 
     difference for the community I live in, for the State that I 
     love, to be able to try to make things better, whether they 
     turned out in the fashion I expected them to or not.

  Then she added:


[[Page 18208]]

       Sometimes it's serendipitous. Good things happen 
     accidentally. But they're not going to happen unless well-
     meaning people give of their time and their lives to do that.

  Ann Richards earned that legacy and more. She made a difference not 
only for her community and her beloved State, but to our entire Nation. 
She touched so many lives and changed so many lives in her life. She 
will be greatly missed.
  Our thoughts and prayers go out to her children: Cecile, Daniel, 
Clark and Ellen; their spouses; and Governor Richards' eight 
grandchildren.
  There is good news in the Richards family. Cecile received an award 
last night from USA Action. Of course, she couldn't be there, she was 
at her mother's deathbed--and that is certainly understood. But a 
tribute was paid to her for her active work on behalf of women across 
America as a leader in Planned Parenthood. She is carrying on her 
mother's legacy, her commitment, her family's commitment to public 
service. I can't think of anything that would have made Ann Richards 
more proud.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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