 I'd like to go ahead and introduce our panel. I'm going to start with the director of the LBJ Library, Mr. Mark Uptegrove. And then we've got Ellen Richards, Chair Emeritus of the Ann Richards School Foundation, and then Dr. Don Carlton from the Briscoe Center for American History. We're great. We're now officially hydrated. We're getting ready to go swimming is what we're going to do. I hope not. Thanks, guys. Thank you so much. That's great. This is not rehearsed. Thanks, Kenny. Ellen, we use a phrase around here at the LBJ Library often when describing LBJ, and it's larger than life. And your mother was so clearly larger than life. What was she like at home? That's a great question. My mother was a very authentic person in public and in private. But I think the things I enjoyed were traveling with her and doing crossword puzzles and just reading books and talking about what trip we were going to go on, doing the things that any family wants to do together. And we had a rhythm that really worked for us, and we could laugh really hard together about things that happened. And those are the things I remember and miss the most about her. You could see her humor throughout the film. Bill Clinton talks about the importance of her humor. Is there a particular story that you remember that reveals that side of your mother? Not probably one that I could repeat in public. But as I was saying, I often will tell you this. I mean, this is probably not appropriate for this audience, but I'll tell you anyway. While it's a little bit sad when my mother was going through treatment, for cancer, there was just a constant barrage of testing, and we were at Andy Anderson, and there was so much going on. And she had to have this test that involved drinking barium or something like that so that they could then do this scan. And so they tell you these crazy flavors. They have pina colada and whatever. And so we got so tickled, and then mother would insist on telling a joke to the guy who has to deliver her the barium or whatever. And she would tell these real off-color jokes to these folks that were in these positions, and they just didn't know what to do. And she and I would just be doubled over, screaming with laughter in this awkward tech. This medical technician would just be like, I don't know what to do. But it really eased the awkwardness of the situation and the sadness of it too. Don, not only did Governor Richards blaze trails for women here in Texas across the country, but she was also concerned with preserving the history of women in Texas. Talk a little bit about her effort to do that. Well, that's how I knew, first knew, and really, she was still a member of the Travis County Commissioner's Court. And she took you, Ellen, I believe. This year the person who experienced this, but at any rate, she took her kids to the Institute of Texan Cultures to see Texas history, and the men were missing. And so she got back to Austin, and she called, I believe, with Sarah Weddington to say, we've got to do something, put together a project, and recover the history of women in this state. This is 1980, I would say, something like, 78, late 70s. At any rate, she was really the inspiration, the power, the influence behind this entire project, which was really looking back on it. It was a key project for recovering the history of women in this state. And she deserves a great deal of credit for that. I think it's really going to be one of her legacies, frankly, because she had a keen insight and understood that people who are marginalized and people who are made to feel unworthy and people who are made to feel they just haven't done anything as a people, either ethnic group, race, gender, whatever, one of the things that people who keep them down do is they deprive them of their history. They either make their history up for them, or they just simply deny they have a history. And so she was told by many people that, well, you can't do that. You can't go and get to find the history of women, because there's nothing out there. Women, they ironed, and they cooked, and things like that. It didn't leave records. So she started this project. And that's how I met her, because as a historian, she's really the one who brought us into the whole era of looking at our historical evidence completely different. And there was a ton of stuff out there. It's always been there. It's just that no one paid attention to it. And I would have to say also that one of the things that she saw in that project was the importance of being a symbol to other women. And I think that eventually is what convinced her to save all of her papers, because she had gone through this experience of people saying that there were no research records out there. And this was very much in her mind, in turn. And thankfully, she did. And she placed her papers at the Docrisco Center for America. I chased her for 14 years. It took 14 years. She kept saying, Mark, we talk on the phone. She goes, Don Carleton, nobody is interested in this crap I've got. I want to throw all this stuff away. And thankfully, she didn't. I never believed she would, because she knew the importance of records. I told her one time, I said, Ann, were there no records? There's no history. So about two years later, I saw her at a dinner. And I walked up to her. She knew what I was going to hit her up about. She goes, Don Carleton, don't tell me again that where there's no records, there's no history. So we had that ongoing thing. But our thing is very important to know and to understand that that is one of her legacies, is women's history was not unknown. It was very much something that started in the academy among professional historians in the 60s. But what I think Ann deserves is credit for bringing women's history into the mainstream. She brought something out of the academy and made people realize that it was important. Ellen, early in the film, we hear about your mother's being treated for alcoholism. And she was very candid about her alcoholism. What was the catalyst? What made her seek treatment and realize that she had a problem? The catalyst was that there was a group of family friends and family members who organized what was called an intervention, which basically you sit down with the person and let them know that you love them, but that you're drinking as a problem. And luckily, which I'm grateful to say I wasn't present for, I was too young and away in boarding school, but both my brother and sister participated in my father. And luckily for us, my mother heard that and she got on a plane that day and she went to St. Mary's to be treated in Minnesota and she never looked back. That isn't the story for a lot of people that go through treatment. But for us, my mother, as my sister said in the film, she made a decision and she decided that that was going to be it and she was going to move forward from there. And I think it was an excruciatingly painful experience for us as a family. I mean, there's really nothing harder to go through, I think. But I will say that the amazing thing was that my mother used that to inspire people all across the country to seek help and she never hid that from anyone. And there are many people that will tell you that they sought help because of her and because of her honesty about her own addiction and her own treatment and her own recovery. She was a model in that way. How did she change in the wake of her rehabilitation? I think for my mom, going back to my earlier comment, it allowed her to become more authentic. I think alcoholism was a way for her to deal with fears and anxieties or whatever it was. I don't really know all of it. But I think this allowed her to really clear away the things that kept her from being the most successful she could be. And without that, she was able to set her mind on a path and achieve her goals. Did her rise in Texas politics surprise you or your siblings? I don't think any of us ever really thought this was how it was gonna go. I mean, it wasn't like one day we thought, oh, mom's gonna be governor one day. It wasn't like that. It was like one day she was gonna be county commissioner and then, oh, well, now she's gonna be state treasurer. Oh, well, now she's gonna be governor. But I will say that the 1988 convention, everybody got that. Like it was a, that was a watershed moment for her and for us as a family. So I think for the first time, we really saw the possibilities. But I don't think she ever set out to become governor. Like I don't think that, she didn't necessarily have that as a goal. It was like step by step, it just, that's where her life went and we went with her. Don, you were clearly successful in securing the governor's papers. They're unique because they're so personal. Talk a little bit about that. We have at the Briscoe Center, the papers of more than 70 former members of Congress, Senate, House of Representatives, several governors. And as a historian, I have to tell you that while those papers are valuable in all cases, they're the official papers of the individual. They're their office files. They're very valuable for understanding, decision-making for policy, creation, outcomes, things like that. But you can't find the person in them. You can go into a senator's papers and I'm not saying that this was on purpose or something. It's just the way the offices work. But there's nothing personal in them. You can't find the person in there. Well Ann did something very unusual. When she gave us her, actually I should say directed her gubernatorial papers to us because they literally belong to the state of Texas. Their public records, the state library owns them. But we have them and manage them. But at any rate, when she gave them to us, we had long talks about this. And she gave us all of her private personal papers also. That is, that's almost unique. I mean, there she is, just laid out. And that decision, we did work out a thing. She was nervous about it and she was conflicted about it. She was a private person in many respects, you know that. The history went out. The cause of history went out. And so she did say, all right, we'll do this, but they have to be closed for at least a year and a half after my death. And this is back in the 90s. And so we did that. But if she had not managed, if she had not agreed to do that, Jan Reed's biography of Anne that was published a year or so ago would not be the same book. I'm not even sure that Jan could have written anything like what he wrote. Holland Taylor couldn't have done her stage play without those papers. I dare say the film depended on those papers as well. So that may be another really one of her legacies in that she has left this body of papers that students and educators can use forever. And that's a real legacy, I think. I think it's an important legacy. Is there anything in those papers that's particularly surprising or revelatory? How candid they are. She gave us everything. I mean, you never know if someone's giving you everything. But I back off on that statement because I've been in this business a long time, but they're remarkably candid the way, particularly for a politician. Most politicians will not give you their personal papers, their private papers. And she did. She wanted future generations to study her experience. The bad part as well as the good part. Right, right. Alan, Don used the word legacy. You carry on your mother's legacy at the Ann Richards School. Talk a little bit about how that school was created and what your mission is. So the school, the idea for the school started when mom was still alive. And the concept was to create an all girls college preparatory public school that would be grades six through 12. And so my mom signed on to be the namesake but also to help raise money to support the school and to raise its profile. And so unfortunately, she passed away before the school was open. And so I stepped into the role to chair the private partnership that's been developed to support the program. And so I'm proud to say that last year we graduated our first class of 52 girls and all of them have matriculated to college. 100% of our girls were accepted to four year colleges. And they with them went several million dollars in merit based scholarship funds. And so I was very active in the first few years of that initiative. And I take more of a backseat role now but really my mother in her life was all about helping women and girls break barriers in their personal and professional lives. And she spoke all over the country telling women to be financially stable to make sure that they can be independent for them to take chances that they've never taken before to run for public office. And this school is really about creating opportunity for girls who might not have it otherwise. We serve predominantly girls who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and it's our intent to try to continue to do that. The best we can because she really wanted to open doors for those girls who didn't have privilege and like the life that I was raised with, life of privilege. And I think we've accomplished more than we ever dreamed to accomplish in that school. And it's really to the credit of Jeannie Gokar principal and to the families and the students and the staff at the school. It's an amazing place. And if anybody ever wants to take a tour or go for a visit please let us know because it is remarkable to see these young women studying things that my mother would have never had an opportunity to study much less even know existed. And it's a really a wonderful place. And just as she wanted Texas state government to reflect the people of Texas, that school reflects the people of Texas in all its diversity. Tom, what is the legacy of Anne Richards? Well, I think, I mean, is looking at her not as a friend but as a historian or the keeper of her, you know, her papers. The, she clearly has these firsts that we have to pay attention to. I mean, she was the first woman to be elected as a state treasurer of Texas. She was, as she pointed out in the film and this is incredible to think about actually now the first woman elected to statewide office at 50 years in Texas. It's like, you know, kind of mind boggling. And, you know, the other thing is that she was the first woman elected governor of Texas on her own right. What they were talking about Maul and Paul Ferguson is absolutely right. When Maul Ferguson was elected governor everybody was voting for Paul. And Maul ran on that platform actually. You're voting for my husband. He was disqualified because he had been impeached. So he got around it, ran his wife. So that really didn't, doesn't count in some ways. But if you wanna look at a scorecard, a box score for her, her, really her legacy as governor, you know, I, a lot of people don't understand even citizens of Texas that the governor's position office in this state is not as powerful as people think it is. It's a bully pulpit and that's important. I'll come back to that in a second. But, you know, it's legislature that passes the laws. Lieutenant governor, the speaker are very powerful. And so the governor of this state has limited ability to really do the scorecard kind of checklist. Well, we did this and we did that and we did this. I think she ranks up there is one of our better governors in that sense. She got a lot of accomplished. But I think her real, her real importance is as a symbol. I think she's inspired a whole generation of women to go into public service. And that's a major, major accomplishment. Very few people ever get to say they've done. So I think that's really her legacy is what she symbolizes in so many respects. I think that in the future, we've had governors like John Connolly for example, example who may be on the scorecard in terms of legislation among our really great governors. The Connolly administration really almost like Johnson in the great society. And other governors who've done those things too. But I think when you open up a history book in the future, you're gonna see Anne's picture there and you're probably not gonna see any of these other governors rightly or wrongly. Oh, let me ask you the same question. What do you believe your mother's legacy is? For me, the thing that was most important to her was creating opportunity for people that didn't have it. And I think, I have an example of this actually that I witnessed recently. I went to the swearing in of my good friend, Celia Israel, who was elected state representative recently here in Travis County. And she had just a beautiful service in the house and it included a, I'm not sure what you call it, a presentation by the color guard. And I looked at the Department of Public Safety officers who served in the color guard that day and it was almost all minorities and women. And when my mother took office, that was a real white good old boy deal. And she said, I want this to look different. And she insisted that the people that protected her in her security detail be minorities whenever possible. And there weren't, I don't think, I'm not just positive about this, but I'm pretty darn sure there were no women in the DPS at that time. And I can tell you, it looks completely different today and it would not be that way if it weren't for my mother. And that's true in a lot of areas. I want to thank our panelists and our partners tonight. I want to congratulate the filmmakers on a very moving tribute to Erin. Thank you all very much for coming.