Cockrell, Lila, 1922-2019

Lila May Banks Cockrell (January 19, 1922 – August 29, 2019) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she was the first woman elected Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, serving from 1975 to 1981 and from 1989 to 1991.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, she graduated from Southern Methodist University. During World War II, she served in the WAVES branch of the United States Navy. She served as President of the Dallas and San Antonio chapters of the League of Women Voters during the 1950s. After serving for a decade on the city council, including her 1969 service as the city's first woman mayor Pro Tem, Cockrell was elected in 1975 to the first of four two-year terms as Mayor of San Antonio. At the time of her inauguration, San Antonio's population gave her the status of the mayor over the largest American city being governed by a woman. At the end of her third term, she chose not to run because of the illness of her husband; after being widowed in 1986, she was elected to her fourth term as mayor in 1989. Cockrell was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1991.

After retiring from political office, Cockrell served on many municipal commissions and civic boards. In 2013, she retired as president of the San Antonio Parks Foundation, a position she had held since 1998. Cockrell was a member of the Hot Wells Conservancy Board, which is working with the Bexar County Commissioners Court to restore the former Hot Wells hotel, spa, and bathhouses, which flourished in the first two decades of the 20th century.

Cockrell's health declined in the time leading up to her death. Cockrell died at the age of 97 under hospice care on August 29, 2019 in her apartment in San Antonio. She was buried in San Antonio's Mission Burial Park North.