Journalist Molly Ivins Dead at 62

Posted on February 3, 2007

Journalist and author Molly Ivins has lost her long battle with cancer: she died last week at the age of 62. The outspoken journalist, who wrote Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?, Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush and Bushwhacked, has prompted an outpouring of grief and accolades from her many friends and colleagues. Even President Bush (who was often the subject of Molly's harshest criticism and whom she had known since high school) had kind words for the woman who changed Texas journalism. Cartoonists across the country have engaged in honoring Molly in their own way.

For instance, Ben Sargent of the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman and Universal Press Syndicate showed Ivins' tombstone engraved with the word "Farewell!" A kid at the site says: "Molly Ivins can't say that, can she?" -- a reference to the title of one of the late columnist's books.
Signe Wilkinson of The Philadelphia Daily News and the Washington Post Writers Group drew a man in a cowboy hat walking past Ivins' grave. He says: "But if everyone thought like her, we'd NEVER start misbegotten wars we can't get out of." Mike Keefe of The Denver Post and the Cagle Cartoons (CC) syndicate showed President Bush with smoking feet no longer held to the fire because they were freed from a feet-holding device with the late Ivins' name on it.
Pat Bagley of The Salt Lake Tribune and CC drew two people looking at a statue of Ivins. The statue's inscription has Ivins saying: "The President does not have the sense God gave a duck -- so it's up to you and me." But the "and me" is crossed out. And Mike Lane of CC showed a whip with Ivins' name on it descending from the clouds and snapping at Bush's heels. "We are the deciders!" is written in the sky as an alarmed Bush asks: "Is that you, God?"

Molly Ivins was a true original: she will be missed. You can read The New York Times' obituary here.