Popular newspaper columnist who took politicians to task and lightly made fun of her native Texan culture in the pages of the New York Times and Texas papers.
She brought a breath of fresh air into the Times' newsroom, wearing jeans without shoes and bringing a a dog whose name is too obscene to print.
Taking her diagnosis of breast cancer in stoically humorous fashion, she described her treatment as mutilation, followed by poisoning, adding that “I have been on blind dates better than that.”
She was born in Monterey, California and her father Jim Ivins was an oil and gas man nicknamed General Jim due to his taskmaster persona.
She was the author of The Times' obituary of Elvis Presley .
