Dorothy Ann Willis Richards was born in McLennan County, Texas, in 1933, served as state treasurer from 1983 to 1991, and then a single term as governor, from January 1991 to January 1995. She became a national figure in 1988 with a Democratic convention keynote whose sharpest line — “Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth” — is still quoted more often than her policies. She campaigned on a “New Texas” of government opened up to people it had ignored, and the fairness line was that campaign compressed into seven words. She died in Austin in 2006.