Molly's fans just loved her

It's no exaggeration to say that I got more feedback regarding Molly Ivins' weekly columns than anything we publish.

Her readers just loved her, and they wanted to tell everyone about her. I haven't addressed a group in Centre County without someone standing up and expressing their approval for Ivins,' while some others would nod in agreement.

On the other hand, readers who disagreed with her never hesitated to call, often leaving voice mails expressing that disagreement in words I don't even use. Occasionally I'd answer the phone and they toned it down, slightly.

Ivins got people stirred up, which is exactly what an editorial page columnist should do. It is with sadness that we report her death, from cancer.

Just last week a reader called concerned about Ivins, about why her column wasn't running. We had noted she was on medical leave; I told the reader she had cancer. The reader was shaken up, to say the least.

Ivins had people reading, that's for sure, and after the polarized 2004 presidential election we took a step to run Ivins and Cal Thomas, our two regular weekday columnists, on the same day. Previously we had run one on Wednesday and one on Thursday, or something like that. We even went to the extent of reversing the order, running Ivins at the top of the page one week and Thomas at the top another week. It seemed to work, since we haven't received as many of the vicious anti-Ivins calls in the past two years.

Today, you can read more on Ivins from our sister paper, the Fort Worth Star Telegram. And you can post your thoughts in the guestbook which no doubt will expand quickly. Go ahead, show Centre County's support for Molly Ivins.

We've lost quite a spirited writer.