Bob Collins
Gracie Phillips, 82, has never voted before. The mid-term elections were her last chance. She’s been battling pneumonia.
“With such a large family started at such a young age, priorities in 1951 weren’t the same out here in the country,” her granddaughter, Michelle Phillips, told CBS News. “Women were allowed to vote, but she was raising seven children and trying to work… [voting] kept getting pushed aside and she decided this year, ‘I’m registering.'”
“It became so important to her and it was something she talked about,” Michelle Phillips said. “I think it really helped for her to have that goal, hoping she could get better so we could get her home from the ICU [before Election Day].”
So last Thursday, when early voting started in Texas, her family helped her get to the polling place, CBS said.
The poll workers were extremely kind to Phillips, her granddaughters said. She had a portable oxygen tank with her, so they brought the ballot to the parking lot so she wouldn’t have to leave her car. Poll workers even blocked the windshield so no one could see who she was voting for as she filled out the ballot in the car.
Phillips felt accomplished after casting her ballot. “It was something that was always weighing on her and something that she always wanted to do,” her granddaughter said.
“She was very proud, and she kept saying, ‘I voted. Did you vote? Who did you vote for?'” Moore said. Phillips encouraged her whole family to go out and vote.
Gracie will not find out if she picked a winner in the races for which she cast her first votes.
She died yesterday.
