Frances “Sissy” Farenthold sits at a table in a stately Houston dining room adorned with a pair of carved crosses atop an ornate altar. Wearing an elegant white shirt and with impeccably coiffed hair, she eats like a bird, tucking pieces of cornbread into her mouth. The window before her offers a stunning view of Houston’s leafy West Kirby district. A Corpus Christi native, Farenthold hired a South Texas artist to redesign the home to honor her respect for history and her commitment to challenging it. From this isolated aerie, the 94-year-old has a keen eye for political scandals and corruption, both past and present. She trains her sharp gaze on Texas politics with the agility of a hawk.
A legendary former state legislator, Farenthold earned her place in Texas history as a fearless reformer—a “melancholy rebel,” in the words of Molly Ivins; “Texas’ Joan of Arc,” in the words of a University of North Texas graduate student.
Farenthold is elated that there’s finally a woman in the White House serving as vice president, nearly five decades after the native Texan narrowly lost her own bid to become the Democratic Party’s VP in 1972 under nominee George McGovern, back when VPs were elected at the convention. (She finished second in the field of nominees; all others were men.) “Judging from what my experience had been, I felt it was going to be much longer in coming—a change would come much later,” she says.
