Goodbye, Old Gal.

Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated Press.

Thank you for your fierce truth telling and for being true to your own voice when others demanded that you betray it.

The world is a far less beautiful place without you.

And yet, you will forever be an inspiration.

Ms. Ivins learned she had breast cancer in 1999 and was typically unvarnished in describing her treatments. “First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you,” she wrote. “I have been on blind dates better than that.”

But she continued to write her columns and continued to write and raise money for The Observer.

Indeed, rarely has a reporter so embodied the ethos of her publication. On the paper’s 50th anniversary in 2004, she wrote: “This is where you can tell the truth without the bark on it, laugh at anyone who is ridiculous, and go after the bad guys with all the energy you have.”