Miriam "Ma" Ferguson, the first female governor of Texas, was a liberal Democrat whose accomplishments included securing an anti-mask law against the Ku Klux Klan (overturned by the courts), and supporting state aid to impoverished rural schools.

But because of her thoughts on the English language in America (enshrined on this poster, t-shirt, and mug), fellow liberal Jimmy Carter* could only complain that her "kind of parochial attitude causes much of the conflict in the world" (speech given 2001 at the Burkle Center for International Relations).

The Derb saw things rather differently, and cited her as an American heroine (John Derbyshire's remarks, The Corner, National Review Online, June 2006).

*Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Yasser Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. John Derbyshire has never been nominated.