A look back at Molly Ivins's time in Minneapolis.

When Molly Ivins walked into the Minneapolis Tribune newsroom in 1967, there was no one happier than I. Yes, Molly brought a spark—not to say a Texas drawl, a Smith College/Columbia University sophistication, and a feisty demeanor—to our reporting staff. But most important to me, I was able to turn my entry-level duties as police reporter and Almanac writer (the page-one box that featured sunrise, sunset, and a cute little kid’s story every day) over to her, the newest cub reporter on the block. And once Molly took hold of those duties, police and kindergarten kids never quite recovered from the shock.

Molly’s death this past week brought memories of two stories she wrote in Minneapolis almost forty years ago. One was a wonderful memoir she wrote for a Twin Cities Newspaper Guild awards program about attending summer camp with Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson. Yep, you guessed right: She and Luci didn’t quite hit it off. The other, which more typifies her opinion-laced future work, was written on the occasion of her leaving the Tribune in 1970.  Is anyone surprised that she entitled it, “The Minneapolis Tribune is a stone wall DRAG”?

Here are the two stories, as well as a piece that William Swanson did for Mpls.St.Paul Magazine in March 1998 in which Molly offers a tribute, of sorts, to the Mall of America.

Also, here is The New York Times's obituary.

—Brian Anderson