SALON

Thursday, Dec 6, 2012 1:45 AM UTC

Houston-area town’s mayor for 63 years dead at 92

By

Topics: From the Wires,

RICHMOND, Texas (AP) — Hilmar Moore, who has been mayor of the Southeast Texas town of Richmond since 1949, has died at age 92.

Moore died Tuesday night after a lengthy illness, his wife, Evelyn Moore, said Wednesday. Hilmar Moore was the nation’s longest-serving mayor of uninterrupted tenure, according to the website for the city of Richmond, which is about 25 miles southwest of Houston.

Moore first became mayor when he was appointed to fill an unexpired term in September 1949. He had come back to the area after serving in the Pacific in World War II.

“I was called to the Rotary Club on Monday, Sept. 22, 1949, just to attend the meeting and they said, ‘We want you to fill out an unexpired term as mayor,’” he said in a recent interview with public radio station KUHF-FM in Houston. “I said, ‘OK, I’ll think about it.’ They said, ‘No, we want to swear you in this afternoon.’ I said, ‘Wow. That’s a little fast.’”

When he took office, Richmond had about 2,000 residents. It now has more than 12,000.

The San Antonio native also ran cattle on land that had been in the family since 1822, and served on several national and Texas groups that represent ranchers. His mother was a member of the prominent Guenther milling family in San Antonio.

“I have three ancestors who were here during the period that Texas was a republic,” Moore told KUHF. “In fact, my great-great-grandfather was one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, so my roots are pretty deep here in Fort Bend County.”

A life-size statue of Moore in front of Richmond’s City Hall was unveiled in 2008.

A public memorial for Moore is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Richmond.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations