“Raise more hell.” Molly Ivins: 1944 - 2007

Two years younger than both my parents and now she's gone.

But WOW! Completely Unforgettable.

From the Texas Observer

Syndicated political columnist Molly Ivins died of breast cancer Wednesday evening at her home in Austin. She was 62 years old, and had much, much more to give this world.

She remained cheerful despite Texas politics. She emphasized the more hilarious aspects of both state and national government, and consequently never had to write fiction. She said, “Good thing we’ve still got politics—finest form of free entertainment ever invented.”

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Molly, being practical, used many of her most prestigious awards as trivets while serving exquisite French dishes at her dinner parties. Her awards include the William Allen White Award from the University of Kansas, the Eugene V. Debs award in the field of journalism, many awards for advocacy of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the David Nyhan Prize from the Shorenstein Center at the Kennedy School at Harvard.

Although short, Molly’s life was writ large. She was as eloquent a speaker and teacher as she was a writer, and her quips will last at least as long as Will Rogers’. She dubbed George W. Bush “Shrub” and Texas Governor Rick Perry “Good Hair.”

Molly always said in her official résumé that the two honors she valued the most were (1) when the Minneapolis Police Department named their mascot pig after her (She was covering the police beat at the time.) and (2) when she was banned from speaking on the Texas A&M University campus at least once during her years as co-editor of The Texas Observer (1970-76). However, she said with great sincerity that she would be proudest of all to die sober, and she did.

[For the rest . . . ]


Tip o' my hat to Midniter for the sad news.

Comments

  1. OH my GOD. This is the first news I've had of this. Oh that's just so awful. Wow.

    I just admired her so deeply. I love her style and her fearlessnes on top of her wit and her razor-sharp writing.

    It's so odd, I've been desperate for wisdom, lately. Molly Ivins would have been the kind of person to tell me what I needed to hear. She told us all.

    Thanks, I guess, for the mollyprops and the news.

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  2. Michael,
    That was a good tribute

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  3. I didn't even know she was illing, either MM.

    I first heard of her in college, around '94 or so. Saw her "You can't say that..." book and stood there reading it for about 20 mins in the campus bookstore. LOL! Couldn't afford to buy it though, but I've always been glad to come across her columns on the web.

    The Observer piece was wonderful, eh Ed. Jerked a few more tears outta me, it did.

    Is sad and she'll be missed indeed.

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  4. I hate to hear about that. I thought she was a lot of fun.

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  5. Thanks for the Midniter linky love.

    Um, M.B. -- no comment on the Boston sit-you? I figured since AG used to live in the Charlestown section of Boston where one of the terroristsresides and well AG was in Boston when they went up, you'd do a little postie post on why the terrorist might be AG or winning in the evil cartoon world.

    Dude, it cannot be all about Dum Dum and Ohio.

    :):):):):)

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  6. LOL! "AG bin Laden" is it? Hhhmmm... I don't know. Is possible I blamed Mr Wolf on his own blog. But it's past my bedtime and I can't quite remember that long ago right now.

    :))) Stay outta trouble you Zionist Rapturista, you!

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  7. Trouble? I am deep in a game of Clue right now in the Parlor. I sure hope the BPD doesn't find out. Then we are onto Operation and then perhaps Trouble. The Battleship -- that's always on!

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