There are a lot of memories, stories, and tributes being written about former Texas Governor Ann Richards today — one day after she passed away from esophageal cancer.

My favorite one was written by Glen Maxey (Maxey was the first openly gay person elected to the Texas Legislature) and posted at the Burnt Orange Report:

So one day Erma Jefferson, one of the most outrageous Democrats I had ever met, asked the group if Ann Richards could beat the incumbent in her race for State Treasurer. Someone in the group responded, “Hell no. You gotta have balls to win in Texas!”. The group laughed. Fast forward three months…

Erma Jefferson and friends show up in Austin. They’ve come with a gift for Ms. Richards. And they asked me [Glen Maxey] to deliver it. When I did, and Ann opened the velvet box, it held a real set of jewels. There on the velvet pillow were two balls accompanied by a note:

Dear Ann:

You can’t win in Texas without a set of balls.
We hereby donate Glen Maxey’s balls, since he doesn’t need them.

Sincerely,

The Women of Brazos County

Well, I don’t know who laughed the hardest — me or Ann. I know I was probably as red as I’ll ever be. (I was still very much in the closet as a gay man at this point in my life!)

So the saga began that continued over the next almost decade. Every time I was in a room with her, Ann Richards would say to whomever was there (and once this was to a group at the National Women’s Political Caucus in San Antonio which included Geraldine Ferraro, Olympia Snowe, Bella Abzug and others), “Do you know what this man did for my campaign? He donated his balls. I’ve had my pants tailored, and it has given me a whole new outlook on my political activities!” She’d go on and on about my manhood and her career. Always to my great embarassment, and to everyone else’s glee.

When Maxey won his seat to the Texas Legislature in 1991, then Governor Richards asked if she could swear him in (a duty usually performed by the Speaker of the House):

As I’m trying not to obsess about a speech I’m going to give in my biggest “prime time” engagement, my 70 year old mom and Ann talked about fishing for flounder and red fish in the Gulf. And I recall Ann calling my mom a liar for telling a “fish story”. I had to tell them both to be quiet and then had to interrupt them to make Ann pay attention to Mauzy’s introduction of her to swear me in.

So as I put my hand on a Bible held by my mother, and repeated a solemn oath to uphold most of the laws of Texas, I became a member of the House. At that moment I turned and kissed my mom, and Ann leaned over to whisper something in my ear.

The crowd’s thunderous applause filled the Chamber at that moment. Most everyone was watching Ann Richards congratulate me on this high achievement.

But what no one really knew was what Ann Richards would choose to say to me before I had to deliver this speech of my lifetime:

She drawled in my ear, “Now Glen, I’m going to do someting now that I promised myself I’d never, ever do. I’m giving you your damn balls back. Because whether you know it or not, you’re going to need them more than you can imagine to work in this damn place.”

And that, my friends, was the best gift Ann Richards could ever give me.

She gave me and thousands of people like me the balls to go do things outside our comfort zones, to take on challenges everyone says we shouldn’t try, and to always get up off our butts and take charge when we see things that need to get done.

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Thursday, September 14th, 2006 | Trackback |