Obituaries by Molly Ivins

“Picture a campaign summer in the 1950s, say, in East Texas, Raff Yarborough on the back of a flatbed truck with a C&W band in tow. Yarborough on a tear, explaining to plain folks in plain words the right and the wrong of Jim Crow, of McCarthyism, of communism, of Hispanic field workers, of the oil companies ripping off Texas, of the gutless politicians who let it happen.” Read more

“One of the best stories is about the time Decca was invited to become a distinguished professor at San Jose State University. She was deeply thrilled, but the position required her to take a loyalty oath. She refused to give the school her fingerprints, providing toe prints instead. A great and glorious uproar ensued, and, alas, it ended with her becoming, as she put it, “an extinguished professor.”” Read more

“My own peculiar role at The Progressive is to provide regular instruction in the science of how to keep laughing, even though you’ve considered all the facts. And there was never such a magazine for making you consider all the facts as Erwin Knoll’s Progressive. And there was never anyone easier to make laugh than Erwin Knoll.” Read more

“Dr. Liz Karlin, that lovely soul, dead of a brain tumor at fifty-four. Happened in a matter of a couple months. “Oh, you know Liz, she hated doctors,” said our friend Donna Shalala, who is now Secretary of HHS.” Read more