Virginia McLaurin, Sharecroppers’ Daughter Who Danced With the Obamas, Dies
Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw at a recent House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Trump Administration’s Environmental Policies. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr)
Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who came to Congress from Fort Worth, Texas, in 2013, and became the darling of the Tea Party right, was forced out because of his “nasty” attitude towards women.
Today, the New York Times reported that he died in a car accident in West L.A.
His death came just as I reached the end of my story on him in 2016. The piece had been more than a year in the making. While researching the story, I often went back to the stories of his life, his family, his relationships, his political career, his fights and the way he treated people. In my research I became obsessed with the details of his life and his relationships, as well as his political career. (I knew there was more to come and had already spent more than a year and a half writing the story, which is why I hadn’t told anyone of my discovery of the details of his death for nearly two years prior to reporting on it.)
I had learned only weeks prior to writing the piece that Crenshaw might be dead. I was sitting on the steps of his home when a neighbor, a friend, told me his wife was trying to reach him at his condo and he wouldn’t answer the phone. I went to his home to try to speak with him and his wife was already dead.
I tried to reach the Congressman via his phone number at the time, but it went straight to voice mail. Then I found his website and tried to reach him there, but there was no response.
In the weeks after the publication of the piece, many people who
