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Dear John,

As you probably know, we lost our good friend and forever hero Cecile
Richards on January 20th of this year.

Though she lived in New York for the last long while, from where she
heroically led Planned Parenthood through some of its greatest challenges,
her heart always remained in Texas. And so it was in Austin that her
family and friends held a memorial service for her this past weekend.

[1]A picture of Cecile Richard's memorial service. It shows a crowd of
people sitting in front of a stage.

I flew up from El Paso Saturday morning and was happy to see a packed
house full of folks who’ve been in the fight from the early days of Ann
Richards’ career, to Cecile’s labor organizing days in East Texas, to her
more recent work with Planned Parenthood and her political action group
Supermajority.

I also saw alumni from our 2022 governor’s race, where Cecile served as
our national finance chair. She had used her national profile to help us
raise the support we needed to give Texans a fighting chance against a
governor who had outlawed abortion and was seeking to remove other
lifesaving healthcare and freedoms from our state.

[2]A picture of Beto O'Rourke, Lucie Baines Johnson, and Cecile Richards

^Standing with Cecile and Lucie Baines Johnson in 2022

Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy shared stories about Cecile and husband
Kirk’s Tyler, Texas home being the headquarters for the “booming” East
Texas progressive movement as the young couple focused on organizing
workers in a part of the state that too often went overlooked. Wendy Davis
movingly recalled Cecile’s role in her historic 13-hour filibuster to
preserve abortion access in Texas in 2013.

Others spoke about Cecile’s tireless efforts on behalf of her mother’s
gubernatorial campaigns, her love for her kids and grandkids, her
incredible sense of humor. What an amazing soul!

And finally, her husband Kirk Adams talked about his love for Cecile,
their time in New Orleans together early in their marriage, their lives
spent fighting for justice and freedom — especially for the most
vulnerable — and the fighting spirit that Cecile brought to everything she
did.

He said that if each of us approaches the fight in front of us with that
same spirit then Cecile will live forever.

At that, the Preservation Hall band — joined by young musicians from the
Ann Richards school — led us in a second line parade out into the
beautiful and warm Austin evening, each of us thinking about what we could
do to meet this moment like Cecile would want us to.

Beto

[ [link removed] ]In memory of Cecile, please consider splitting a donation with Planned
Parenthood Texas Votes.




 




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