|
|
|
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
|
|
WHEREAS, The Lone Star of Texas shines a little less brightly |
|
today with the loss of the fearless, funny, independent-minded |
|
journalist Molly Ivins, who died in Austin on January 31, 2007; and |
|
WHEREAS, Born Mary Tyler Ivins in Monterey, California, on |
|
August 30, 1944, she was the daughter of Jim and Margot Milne Ivins; |
|
after her family moved to the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston, |
|
Ms. Ivins attended St. John's School, where she was the editor of |
|
the student newspaper; and |
|
WHEREAS, She developed her love of the outdoors during hiking |
|
and sailing trips with her family; she also received her earliest |
|
training in political debate through lively and freewheeling |
|
discussions with her father on the issues of the day; and |
|
WHEREAS, Following in the footsteps of her mother and |
|
grandmother, Ms. Ivins attended Smith College in Northampton, |
|
Massachusetts, graduating with a bachelor's degree in journalism in |
|
1966; she also attended the Institute of Political Sciences in |
|
Paris and earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia |
|
University in New York; and |
|
WHEREAS, Her long and colorful career in journalism began |
|
with summer jobs as a reporter at the Houston Chronicle, where she |
|
was known for her interest in socially significant stories; her |
|
first full-time job was with the Minneapolis Tribune, as the |
|
paper's first female police reporter; she also created her own |
|
"Movements for Social Change" beat at the paper, writing about, as |
|
she later put it, "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical |
|
students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and |
|
troublemakers"; and |
|
WHEREAS, Returning to Texas in 1970 to become co-editor of |
|
the Texas Observer, she further developed her distinctively witty |
|
prose and populist stance; she took great pleasure in the high style |
|
of Texas politics, calling it the best free entertainment in |
|
Austin; she later called her years at the Observer "a happy, golden |
|
time, full of sunshine and laughter and beer"; and |
|
WHEREAS, In 1976 she moved to the New York Times, working as a |
|
political reporter in New York and Albany, and then as the Rocky |
|
Mountain bureau chief in Denver; in the staid culture of the Times, |
|
she stood out by wearing jeans, working barefoot, and bringing her |
|
dog to work, and she often sparred with the editors over her love of |
|
jokes and salty metaphors; and |
|
WHEREAS, She returned to Texas in 1982 as a columnist for the |
|
Dallas Times Herald, where her strong opinions and pointed wit |
|
amused and sometimes outraged the paper's readers, often at the |
|
same time; when subscribers complained and several advertisers |
|
pulled their ads, the paper responded by putting up billboards in |
|
Dallas that read, "Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?", which |
|
became the title of her first book, a collection of her columns; and |
|
WHEREAS, After the Times Herald folded in 1993, she wrote for |
|
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and then began her syndicated column, |
|
which has been carried twice weekly in 400 newspapers nationwide; |
|
she compiled several collections of her columns, and with Lou |
|
Dubose she wrote two best-selling volumes on national politics; and |
|
WHEREAS, Over a long and storied career, Ms. Ivins won many |
|
awards, including the William Allen White Award from the University |
|
of Kansas, the Eugene V. Debs Award in the field of journalism, and |
|
the David Nyhan Prize from the Shorenstein Center at the Kennedy |
|
School of Government at Harvard University; she was a finalist for a |
|
Pulitzer Prize in commentary in 1985 and 1988; yet she often used |
|
her awards as trivets during dinner parties and said that the two |
|
honors she valued most were having the Minneapolis Police |
|
Department name their mascot pig after her when she was covering |
|
them, and being banned from speaking on the Texas A&M campus during |
|
her Texas Observer days; and |
|
WHEREAS, Considered by many to be a crusading satirist on a |
|
par with Mark Twain and Will Rogers, she will be remembered by her |
|
many readers across the nation for her deeply held convictions, her |
|
plainspoken but pungent prose, and her unsparing wit; she will also |
|
be remembered for her appearances on 60 Minutes, The MacNeil/Lehrer |
|
News Hour, NPR's Morning Edition, and other programs where she |
|
explained to the nation the mysteries of her home state in a sly |
|
Texas drawl; and |
|
WHEREAS, Molly Ivins never wavered in her love of Texas; she |
|
was straight-talking, passionate, boundlessly energetic, and |
|
always the funniest person in the room; a brilliant raconteur and |
|
hostess, she opened her home to a lively crowd at a monthly event |
|
known as Last Friday; a true and loyal friend, a brilliant writer, |
|
and a tireless campaigner for the causes she believed in, Molly |
|
Ivins will be remembered by all as a force of nature, a woman who |
|
lived life right to the end without the brakes on, with style and |
|
spirit and great good humor; now, therefore, be it |
|
RESOLVED, That the 80th Legislature of the State of Texas |
|
hereby honor the life of Molly Ivins and offer sincere condolences |
|
to the members of her family: to her sister, Sara Ivins Maley; to |
|
her brother, Andy Ivins, and his wife, Carla; to her nephew, Drew, |
|
and her niece, Darby; to her niece, Margot Hutchison, and her |
|
husband, Neil, and their children, Sam, Andy, and Charlie; to her |
|
nephew, Paul Maley, and his wife, Karianna, and their children, |
|
Marty, Anneli, and Finnbar; and to her other relatives and many |
|
friends; and, be it further |
|
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be |
|
prepared for her family and that when the Texas House of |
|
Representatives and Senate adjourn this day, they do so (though |
|
she'd scarcely believe it herself) in memory of Molly Ivins. |
|
|
Naishtat |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anderson |
Gonzalez Toureilles |
Mowery |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brown of Kaufman |
Harper-Brown |
Ortiz, Jr. |
|
|
Brown of Brazos |
Hartnett |
Otto |
|
|
|
|
Callegari |
Hernandez |
Patrick |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Christian |
Hochberg |
Pickett |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cook of Navarro |
Hopson |
Puente |
|
|
Cook of Colorado |
Howard of Fort Bend |
Quintanilla |
|
|
Corte |
Howard of Travis |
Raymond |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Crownover |
Jackson |
Rodriguez |
|
|
|
|
Davis of Harris |
Keffer |
Smith of Tarrant |
|
|
Davis of Dallas |
King of Parker |
Smith of Harris |
|
|
Delisi |
King of Taylor |
Smithee |
|
|
Deshotel |
King of Zavala |
Solomons |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Eissler |
Leibowitz |
Thompson |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Escobar |
Madden |
Van Arsdale |
|
|
Farabee |
Mallory Caraway |
Vaught |
|
|
Farias |
Martinez Fischer |
Veasey |
|
|
Farrar |
Martinez |
Villarreal |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
______________________________ |
______________________________ |
|
President of the Senate |
Speaker of the House |
|
|
|
I certify that H.C.R. No. 72 was unanimously adopted by a |
|
rising vote of the House on February 21, 2007. |
|
|
|
______________________________ |
|
Chief Clerk of the House |
|
|
|
I certify that H.C.R. No. 72 was unanimously adopted by a |
|
rising vote of the Senate on February 21, 2007. |
|
|
|
______________________________ |
|
Secretary of the Senate |
|
APPROVED: __________________ |
|
Date |
|
|
|
__________________ |
|
Governor |