Mary Dennis, reelected to a seventh term in May, has been mayor of the thriving City of Live Oak for 14 years and counting.
“I hope she keeps running forever,” Sandy Cunningham said while walking a dog at the city’s animal shelter on a recent morning.
Boston native Cunningham is a 37-year resident of the 5-square-mile Live Oak, a suburb on the northeast edge of San Antonio with a population of 17,500 that regularly swells with workers, shoppers and restaurant goers.
Every day, almost 50 times that number pass through in cars traveling in every direction on Interstate 35 and Loop 1604. In recent years, they’ve had reason to stop as retail and other development has turned Live Oak into a destination.
Amid that change, Mayor Dennis, age 66, has been the constant and people who know her hope to keep it that way.
Born in Newton, Miss., the daughter of an Army veteran later stationed in San Antonio, Dennis graduated from Sam Houston High School, attended Our Lady of the Lake University and got married.
She recalls joining other women passing out flyers to rally against tanks being installed near the high school and meeting San Antonio’s first woman mayor, Lila Cockrell.
But she never sought a life in public service — it found her, and doesn’t seem to want to let go.
“I knew nothing about this world,” she said. “I was very happy. My trash was picked up, and if I needed anything, the city took care of it.”
‘Job doesn’t pay’
Dennis went to San Antonio College and felt she’d found her calling to serve others working as a licensed mortician.
But when a neighbor asked her to help convince the city to pave their road, Dennis agreed despite actually enjoying the gravel surface because it reminded her of her grandmother’s home in Mississippi.
A fascination with the workings of municipal government grew and she soon accepted an invitation to serve on the city’s planning and zoning commission.
In 2007, she ran for a spot on city council and lost by 25 votes. Within the year, she was asked to finish the remaining term of another council member who was deployed. She ran again in 2009 and lost by two votes. Soon after, she was asked again to fill a spot vacated by a councilman.
With about two years on council, Dennis’ daughter urged her to run for mayor. “I don’t think so, Christine,” she recalls saying. “I don’t even know what the mayor does. Besides, the job doesn’t pay.”
At the time, Dennis was working as a teacher’s aide at Edison High School.
When Dennis finally decided to run for the mayor’s seat in 2010, she was one of three people on the ballot and she tied with the incumbent. A coin toss was in order, but Dennis wanted an election. “I’m from Mississippi, we’re going to have a runoff,” she said.
Dennis prevailed, and when she was challenged again two years later, she won by 72% of the vote, the second woman to be elected mayor and the first person of color. “That’s the last race I’ve had,” she said.
Better land use
But her first year as head of the council was rocky with a lot of what she called friction and dysfunction among the city’s leadership. Her constituents wanted change, Dennis said, and so did she, so she insisted on decorum and professionalism.
“I always tell them, we don’t have to agree, and I don’t want us all to agree, because if everybody at this table were like me, we would get very little done,” she said. “We’ll be laughing. We’ll have something to eat. But we would get very little done.”
In fact, Dennis has accomplished a lot, say those who know her.
Early on, she pointed out to the city manager that the Live Oak Civic Center, located at Loop 1604 and I-35 near Universal City, wasn’t making a profit and the land could be put to better use. He agreed and it was sold.
A hotel and several restaurants and a movie theater came along soon after. It was a turning point Dennis is proud to say changed the way the city thought about land use and put Live Oak on the map.
Soon, Live Oak became home to the Randolph-Brooks Credit Union headquarters, Northeast Lakeview College, Wayland Baptist University, the engineering firm Alterman, Goodwill, Methodist Hospital and a growing food and beverage menu.
Live Oak boundaries extend into a portion of the sprawling shopping and dining center, The Forum, which is mostly within the city of Selma, including a Starbucks retailer.
Dennis and longtime Selma Mayor Tom Daly enjoy friendly sparring over the hefty tax revenue the busy store brings. The drive-through is in Live Oak, but the cash register is in Selma. “I’m always teasing Tom Daly that I’m going to break in there and move the cash register,” she said.
Daly also has overseen a development boom in Selma during his time in office. But officials there take a collaborative approach to economic development, trading opportunities as they come along, he said.
There’s good rapport among the mayors in the region, he added, but especially with Dennis, for whom he has a deep respect. “I care about my city, but Mary cares about everybody,” Daly said.
‘Total respect’
Bexar County’s Suburban City Coalition got its start about nine years ago when Dennis asked then-County Judge Nelson Wolff for a seat at the table for all the 26 suburban municipalities in the county.
He agreed, and when she was inadvertently late to the first meeting, Wolff named her the first chairwoman. She is still leading the group.
“I would love for her to stay there in perpetuity,” said County Judge Peter Sakai, who called Dennis a “wonderful” person and credited her with a lot of the growth in the northeast sector.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg first met Dennis, and her granddaughter, while participating as a councilman in the annual Martin Luther King Jr. March.
He’s worked with her since she led the Texas Municipal League, a non-profit organization that provides legal, legislative and educational services to Texas cities. Nirenberg said she navigates polarization in a way that engenders respect from both sides of the aisle.
“If you’re in that office long enough, you get to see the good and the bad of politics, and I’m certain she has,” he said. “I’ve never seen her treat anyone with anything other than total respect, and as a result, she is universally respected.”
In 2016, the Swedish furnishings mega-retailer Ikea announced it had selected Live Oak to build its newest store. The Ikea parcel is a major piece of a long-vacant 113 prime acres in the city.
It was another decisive moment for the city even though she wasn’t sure about it at the time. “I’d heard of Ikea, and I’d been to the one many, many years ago … but I wasn’t an Ikea [follower],” she said.
The celebrated store opening in early 2019 was one of many groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings and community events Dennis regularly still attends in her official duties as mayor.
Proudest moment
Live Oak City Hall is located next to the fire department and across from the Judson ISD offices in a neighborhood of 1970s-era homes, a community pool and a scenic park shaded by neatly trimmed live oaks. She’s rarely in her office there, a windowless room with two ceremonial shovels flanking a state flag.
On a recent morning, Dennis helped kick off the first VIA Link service at Northeast Lakeview College, which now has almost 8,000 students.
The result of an effort she began over seven years ago, bringing to Live Oak a public transportation service that does not extend to the city, it was her proudest moment yet in service as mayor.
“That, to me, is real effective change — making a difference in the lives of the students, the faculty and staff — that they have a way to get to work and school, learn and be all they can be,” she said.
Having never expected to become mayor, or remain in office for well over a decade, Dennis isn’t sure how much longer she will serve as mayor.
It’s not a title she takes pride in — “I’m not impressed with any of this, but I am impressed with helping people” — and her favorite role is “Nana” to three grandchildren.
“I didn’t come to stay,” she adds. So she does think about who follows her. “I want whoever the next person is coming into this seat to be better than me, to take the city to the next level,” she said.
Reflecting on her serendipitous entry to civic life, Dennis urges young people to step up, either as a volunteer or as a career path.
“Local government is the closest to the people, and so your voice, the voices of those you know, need to be heard,” she said.
