Last Friday, after battling anal cancer for several years, Farrah Fawcett died at the age of 62. Some remember her as one of “Charlie’s Angels,” others remember her as an icon of the sexually-charged ‘70s, still others remember her as a struggling actress dealing with the troubles of life after stardom, but most forget that she was a Longhorn.
In 1969, the blonde bombshell from Corpus Christi came to the University of Texas with ambitions of becoming an art or microbiology major. Her talent and passion for art was noticed by Professor Charles Umlauf, an honored modern-day sculptor. The two kept in touch, and years after her time at UT, Fawcett would send plaster molds of her own sculptures to Umlauf while he was in Italy supervising the casting of his bronze sculptures. He would then see that her models were cast in bronze along with his own.
But Fawcett was not simply an innocent art major. As a member of the Tri-Delt sorority, she struck the campus with her beauty. It was rumored that Fawcett, who had been named one of the University’s “10 Most Beautiful,” had freshmen pledges lined up from the door of the sorority house around the corner of 27th St. and Nueces waiting for a shot to ask her out.
A year later, she left Austin to see what else the world had to offer her, and soon became one of the most famous models of the ‘70s and an actress on the hit TV show “Charlie’s Angels.”
Though her life was scarred by rumors of drug use, a strained love life and a battle with cancer, Fawcett was the icon of an independent, sexy, self-made woman who, despite the struggles that came her way, fought her way through it all, showing the same robust spirit that filled her days at UT.
