TEXAS: Dark Victory

Next to the last thing that Anita Blair ever saw was the speedometer on her car, one spring night near El Paso 16 years ago. It read 70. She looked over her shoulder; a split second later the car smashed into a stalled truck. When Anita got out of the hospital, she was blind.

A friendly businessman sent her to the Seeing Eye, Inc. in Morristown, N.J. Anita went back to Texas with Fawn, a female German shepherd dog. In four years, Anita earned a B.A. degree at the Texas College of Mines & Metallurgy.

Anita lectured on traffic safety to schools, clubs and city government groups all over the U.S. To win the attention of squirmy teen-age audiences, Anita told the story of how she and Fawn were wakened by the sound of screams one night in Chicago’s La Salle Hotel. Fawn led Anita down the fire escape for eleven floors; both escaped without a singe. In that 1946 fire, 61 people died.

Last week Fawn led 34-year-old Anita Blair to the threshold of a bright new career. After a tough campaign against five male opponents, Anita won the Democratic nomination for representative to the Texas legislature from El Paso.