DENVER — There she was, her mother’s daughter, fully arrived at a Democratic National Convention on her own terms.Cecile Richards took the stage Tuesday night 20 years after Ann Richards electrified Democrats with the line: “Poor George. He can’t help it — he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

That was the night a star was born, when an iconic Texas woman with a quick wit and Dairy Queen hairdo burst onto the national political scene.

Democrats here in Denver have not forgotten.

“There is a lot of affection for her, a lot of emotional connection,” Cecile said the other day, sitting in a hotel lobby amid a swirl of convention delegates. “I run into people 20 years later who can still recite lines like it was yesterday.”

The former Texas governor died of throat cancer in 2006. Women governors past and present will pay tribute to her here today.

On Tuesday, when Cecile took the convention stage to advocate for women’s rights as president of Planned Parenthood, her own daughter was looking on.

Lily Adams was 16 months old when her grandmother singled her out by name in the speech gigging the first President Bush.

Lily is now 21 and a senior in college at Brandeis.

“She remembers everything my mother ever said. At a Planned Parenthood event the other day, Lily was pulling at my sleeve: ‘Remember what Mammy used to say. She would say talk to every woman you meet, the store clerk, the woman in the checkout line, the mailwoman.’.”

Cecile paused. “I’m sorry mom is missing that.”

She said the fact that two historic candidates emerged to compete for the Democratic nomination would have delighted her mother, who opened government to women and minorities.

Cecile Richards is tall and slender, with her mother’s clear eyes and close-cut silver hair.

Planned Parenthood is a target of abortion opponents, but Ms. Richards said much of the group’s efforts are focused on birth control, cancer screening and women’s health issues.

To that end, she arrived for an interview with a condom in a pink wrapper bearing one of 10 reasons to “Protect Yourself from John McCain (in this election).” Planned Parenthood is distributing the anti-McCain condoms during the convention.

In her speech Tuesday, she chided Mr. McCain as out of touch on women’s issues.

“John McCain believes that judges, politicians and bureaucrats know better than women themselves what’s best for their health,” she said to the cheers of the crowd.

She recalled the summer night 20 years ago when her mother told the hall that holding granddaughter Lily made her “feel the continuity of life that unites us, that binds generation to generation.”

“Lily is here tonight,” Cecile said Tuesday. “And nothing would make Mom prouder than that this November, Lily will cast her first vote for president — for Barack Obama.”

When her mother lost to George W. Bush for governor of Texas in 1994, Ann Richards remained an advocate for women’s rights.

So to the younger Richards, her life’s work is a continuation of her mother’s.

“She kind of got us all into this, but she left a hell of a lot still for us to do,” she said.