Frances T. Farenthold, Liberal Force in Texas and Beyond, Dies at 94 – The New York Times

(The winnerwas Thomas F. Eagleton, who would step down asGeorge S. McGoverns running mateafter it was learned that he had been treated for depression. He was replaced by R.Sargent Shriver Jr.)

Ms. Farenthold left electoral politics after her 1974 gubernatorial loss.

What I discovered, she told The Texas Observer in 2007,was that political office was a life ofconstant moral compromise. And I didnt enter politics with the purpose of compromising my morality.

In 1976 she became the first woman to serve as president of Wells College, a small liberal-arts college, thenfor women only, in Aurora, N.Y. During her four-year tenure, she balanced its budget, expanded student recruitment and founded thePublic Leadership Education Network, a national organization that prepares women for vital public-policy roles.

As if in fealty to her Texas roots, Ms. Farenthold also studied the feasibility of enriching Wellss coffers by tapping the vast reserves of natural gas that lay beneath the campus. In late 1980, after she had left, Wells College heeded her recommendation: It drilled and struck gas.

Returningto Texas, she practicedlaw in Houston and taughtat the University of Houston and at Texas Southern University, a historically Black institution in the city.

In 1989, heryoungest child, Jimmy, disappeared, at 33.Jimmy, who was Vincents identical twin, was said never to have gotten over his brothers death; by the time he was a young man he was addicted to drugs and drifting around Texas. Despite extensive searches, he was never found and is presumed dead. (The family held a funeral for him in 2005.)

Ms. Farentholds marriage ended in divorce. She is survived by her son George Farenthold II, who said the cause of death was Parkinsons disease; another son, Dudley; a daughter, Emilie C. Farenthold; a sister, Genevieve Hearon; three grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and a step-grandson, Blake, the son of Randy Farenthold. A younger brother, Dudley Tarlton, was killed in a helicopter crash in 2003.

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Frances T. Farenthold, Liberal Force in Texas and Beyond, Dies at 94 - The New York Times