R.I.P Molly Ivins:

Molly Ivins, the liberal political columnist who made Texas and George W. Bush her endlessly entertaining subjects, has died after a long struggle with breast cancer. She was 62.

Ivins’s column was syndicated in more than 350 newspapers. She wrote in a style I call H.L Mencken after 3 tallboys, brawling, proud, and profanely intelligent. You didn’t have to agree with her to like her because her leading agenda items was common sense and fairness. She once called Dallas a town “that would have rooted for Goliath to beat David” and a colorless politician “the pet rock of the state house.”

I only met Molly Ivins once when I lived in Austin and staffed an event for Texas Folklife Resources. She was a tall woman with a presence like an oak tree who managed to be both world weary and eager for a fight in the same breath. When an audience member told her how much they liked her work, she asked if they too lives in Austin. When the audience member said yes, Molly Ivins replied “Honey, then you know as well as I do. With Texas politics, anyone could do it. It’s all in the material.”

Molly Ivins’s best material is, in my opinion, her three collections of columns: “Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?”, “Nothin’ But Good Times Ahead” and “You Gotta Dance With Them That Brung You.”. I’ve read each and enjoyed every word.

Molly Ivins was a giant of journalism and the written word, a troublemaker and therefore the best kind of patriot. I will miss her and her work very much.

The Texas Observer, Ivins’s first paper, has dedicated their website this week to remembering her.

• Category: heroes