Daily Prayer #T

It never gets old.  Our capacity for surprise is never filled.  No matter how many times we have experienced freezing cold, damaging winds, torrid heat and unbearable humidity we are always surprised when one of these events befalls us.

Take today.  Lovely bright sunlight pouring through my east windows.  I stepped outside and almost immediately frost formed on my mustache.  Surprised?  Of course.  Why would one expect it to be thirty-five degrees below freezing on a January morning in Indiana?  I mean it happens on an almost-annual basis and yet we somehow are surprised.  Yet again.

The "news" media are full of it.  (Read that again.) The weather readers go on and on about it.  And on.  Amazing, isn't it? That we have weather, I mean; and that we have winter weather in the winter time.

You know what surprises me?  Another day in my life in any weather conditions.  My father used to say of a man beyond three score and ten, "He's living on borrowed time."  Yes, I am living, well past four score now, in that zone of life.  Actually, this is scriptural, for the Bible says a man's years shall be seventy, eighty perhaps by dint of strength.

So this is me, heat, cold, wind, rain, or snow:

"Heavenly Father, I thank you for each day of my life, and I thank you now for this new day which You have granted me.  I pray that I may honor You throughout this day and reflect Your grace and love to those I may encounter.  Let it be so, in the name of Our Lord, Jesus Christ."

Photo: S4 Android by JoAnn Lacy, my BBBH,

Governor Ross

Nellie Tayloe was born near St. Joseph, Missouri, November 29, 1876.  Miss Tayloe married William Ross in 1902.  She had met Mr. Ross while visiting friends in Tennessee.  They chose to make their home in Wyoming, and in 1922 Mr. Ross was elected Governor of Wyoming.  Late in 1924 he died.  The democratic party nominated Mrs. Ross as their candidate for the special election to replace the deceased governor, but she refused to campaign.  She won anyway.  When the 1926 election rolled around, she again refused to campaign, and this time she was defeated. Thus the first woman governor in this country served in that position for two years.*

Mrs. Ross was nominated to run as vice-presidential candidate alongside Al Smith in the 1928 election, but the convention selected Joseph Robinson as the candidate.  Though Ross disagreed with Smith on the issue of prohibition, she made a nominating speech in his behalf and supported him in the election.  She later served as vice-chairman of the DNC.  In 1933 she was named Director of the Mint by President Roosevelt.  She was the first woman to hold this position, a post in which she remained for twenty years until her retirement.

In her retirement years, Nellie Ross traveled extensively and wrote many articles for various publications.  She died in 1977 at the age of 101.

Nellie Tayloe Ross 1876 - 1977 RIP

*Ma Ferguson was inaugurated Governor of Texas twelve days after Ross's inauguration.

Sources: Famous Firsts by American Women;
Wikipedia

Lupita Tovar

I am not familiar with the work of María de Guadalupe Tovar.  Most of the films she played in were made before I was born, or during my childhood.  Many of them are Spanish language films.  Nevertheless, it is important to me to mention this lady, for on this day she will celebrate her 103rd birthday.  And that is perseverance. 

Lupita Tovar was born in Matias Romero, Oaxaca, Mexico.   She was "discovered" by a documentary film-maker as she performed in a school play in Mexico City.  She went to Hollywood in 1929 where she studied dramatics, guitar, dance and English.  She starred in The Invaders and in the Spanish language version of Dracula.  Tovar starred in Santa, Mexico's first talking movie.

Lupita married Paul Kohner in 1932.  The marriage lasted until his death fifty-six years later.  They have a daughter, Susan Kohner, who was an actress in her own right;  and a son.   Two  grandsons, are film directors.  Lupita also has two great-grandchildren.

Congratulations, Ms. Tovar, on a life well-lived!  Happy birthday.

Image:  Wikipedia
Information largely gleaned from the same source., and from
npr     (Link)

Update:  Ms.Tovar passed in November 2016 at age 106.