In 2019, San Antonio saw the passing of people who will be remembered for their contributions to the city, their professions, institutions, and perhaps most of all, for the people they touched.
Civic leaders such as former Mayor Lila Cockrell, who became San Antonio’s first female mayor in 1975, and Dr. Alfonso Chiscano, who played a key role in the city’s Tricentennial celebration, left indelible political and cultural legacies.
Also among the memorialized this year were Emilio Nicolás, who helped build what ultimately became a Spanish-language media empire in Univision, and Tito Bradshaw, a fixture in the local cycling community whose traffic collision death reignited efforts to improve right-of-way conditions for cyclists in this city.
Read their tributes and others below:
- Artist Katie Pell
- Military medical pioneer Raiqua Arastu
- Former Spurs owner and philanthropist Charline McCombs
- San Antonio firefighter Greg Garza
- Spanish-language media giant and Univision founder Emilio Nicolás
- Daughter of former Mayor Lila Cockrell, Carol Ann Cockrell Gulley
- San Antonio media executive Houston Harriman Harte
- Surgeon and Canary Islanders descendant Alfonso Chiscano
- Former San Antonio Mayor Lila Cockrell
- San Antonio jazz musician Jim Cullum Jr.
- Toilet seat museum creator Barney Smith
- COPS/Metro Alliance leader Christine Stephens
- Spouse of Rivard Report editor Clay Reeves, Robert W. Young II
- Advocate for Alamo preservation Erin Bowman
- Central Texas writer Bill Wittliff
- Former Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra violinist Yuri Sheykhet
- Mi Tierra restaurant founder and matriarch Cruz Cortez
- Local affordable housing leader Dan Markson
- First COPS President Andy Sarabia
- Artist and gay icon Gene Elder
- Founding artistic and general director of Alamo City Opera Mark Richter
- Westside community volunteer Olga Madrid
- Investment company CEO Jeanie Wyatt
- Cycling community leader Tito Bradshaw
- Former University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers
- Texas watercolor artist Brad Braune
- Local nightclub owner and LGBTQIA advocate Kenneth Garrett
- Southwest Airlines co-founder Herb Kelleher