appreciated by her classmates. She graduated in 1950 and considered several debating scholarships from different colleges before deciding to attend Baylor University in Texas. She married David Richards in 1953, then completed her studies at Baylor and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin in 1954 to earn a teacher's certificate. Her husband went there to study law. Ann taught government and history in high school for three years. The family moved to Dallas in 1959, and Ann's husband served as a Democratic precinct chairman there. David Richards later served in Washington as part of the New Frontier as a staff lawyer for the Civil Rights Commission ("Richards, Ann" 469).
Local Democrats asked David to run for county commissioner in 1975, but he declined. They then turned to Ann, and she agreed. She has said this marked the turning point in he life. She thereafter subordinated her role as wife and mother to a public career,
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