The White Haired One

Plenty of people today are likely discussing their encounters with one of the most famous Texas Governors, Ann Richards, who died from cancer at the age 73 yesterday. Here are some of mine.

In 1991, in her first full year in office, I was the lowest man on the totem pole in the Capitol bureau in Austin for a big Texas newspaper. While I rarely ever covered any big political stories, my job was often to do the leg work for other reporters when I wasn't attending lame press conferences or obscure state agency meetings.

One of my duties was to get quotes from the governor on the issue of the day. Performing this task meant standing at a side door to the entrance of the Capitol Building at 5 p.m., rain or shine, when Richards usually emerged with two body guards who ushered her into a white Lincoln and drove her over to the governor's mansion.

Sometimes there would be other reporters waiting with me --- especially if some politician had taken a shot at Richards and we needed to hear a response from her own lips. But more often, I'd get sent over to stand outside by myself to ask her what she thought about the school finance bill negotiations or if she was leaning towards calling a special session to pass a lottery bill.

The Richards you got at 5 p.m. on a Thursday evening was not the one you saw on T.V. The quick quip and heightened Texas twang that made Richards' image was usually absent when she addressed the moppy headed 24-year-old newspaper reporter wearing a stupid pair of shoes. She was tired and just wanted to go home. But she always stopped to talk with me, even though I'm sure she'd have rather just brushed by me and my incredible insignificance. But no matter how obscure a question I had for Richards, she always had a thoughtful answer. She never needed a handler, a speech, or an adviser when it came to dealing with policy matters or the business of government. And the main reason for that was because she genuinely cared about the State of Texas and took her job seriously. I didn't always agree with her decisions or her appointments to office but I was never embarrassed to say she was the Governor of Texas.