Oh Ann...

Even a Texas Democrat might be preferable to a western or northeastern Republican. Ann Richards was a popular and iconic governor of Texas, and she was a grandmother at the time, too. I wasn't old enough to remember if she did a good job from 1991 - 1995, but she definitely had the cachet of a woman in charge. The Austin-American Statesman details her life here. (The picture of her riding a Harley on the cover of Texas Monthly was an approved "photoshop" job. But she actually did ride Harleys.) And last night, former governor Ann Richards passed away at the age of 73 in Austin, from esophageal cancer. Godspeed Ann Richards; Democrat you may have been, but you were always a Texan first.