Austin, Texas – Celebrities and ordinary Texans gathered Monday for a final farewell to former Gov. Ann Richards, likening her to a rock star and a force of nature who “gave it her all every single minute of every single day.”
Richards, a Democrat who led the state from 1991 to 1995, died Wednesday at her Austin home at age 73 of esophageal cancer. She was buried earlier Monday at the Texas State Cemetery during a private service.
One funny story after another kept a crowd of 3,800 roaring at the Frank Erwin Center, a place usually reserved for University of Texas basketball games and rock concerts.
But on this day, the arena was filled with gospel music, flowers and hilarious memories of the big-haired, blue-eyed woman elected Texas governor in 1990.
The star-studded service drew Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, former San Antonio Mayor and Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, and Texas-born gossip columnist Liz Smith. Former Commerce Secretary Don Evans attended on behalf of President Bush. At the burial, singer Nanci Griffith performed, and actress Lily Tomlin was in attendance.
Clinton said that when she first met Richards she thought, “I had just met another force of nature. I already lived with one.”
“Some people are so afraid of failing, they never try,” but not Richards, Clinton said. “She tried. She gave it her all every single minute of every single day.”
Speakers emphasized the “New Texas” that Richards heralded – a reference to opening the upper echelons of government to women and minorities.
“Ann Richards understood and embraced more of the notion that this state of Texas that we love so much could not be the Texas that we dreamed of until all God’s children got to play,” said Kirk, who is black. “That was essentially the message of her new Texas – to let us in the door.”
