Former Austin Mayor Frank C. Cooksey Dies at 92 After Fall

Former Austin mayor Frank C. Cooksey, a champion of civil rights, the environment and education, passed away at 92 after a fall and head injury.

A Life of Service

Born in Kentucky in 1933, Cooksey grew up during the Great Depression. His father, a small‑business owner, lost his enterprise amid the economic turmoil and later worked as a suit salesman at Scarbroughs, a downtown Austin department store, until his death in 1959.

Cooksey attended The University of Texas at Austin, where he served as student‑body president in the late 1950s. It was there that he met his future wife, Lynn, and the two would marry for 67 years.

“We had a good life. We had a wonderful life,” Lynn told KXAN by phone. “He was a great father and husband and citizen of the city.”

Before law school, Cooksey studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York. His daughter Kathryn Pew said that education was “really foundational to the rest of his life.”

Rise to Mayoralty

Friends urged Cooksey to run for office, and in 1985 voters elected him as Austin’s mayor when the city had just over 400,000 residents. A New York Times article described him as an “environmental activist” with no prior elective office experience.

“Growth management” was a primary concern for Cooksey, who wanted to annex land and implement new environmental ordinances to protect sensitive areas. He also played a key role in relocating Austin’s airport from the Mueller neighborhood.

The Times noted that Cooksey rode a wave of discontent with Austin’s rapid growth, defeating well‑financed opponents and an incumbent backed by developers.

Legacy and Impact

After his mayoral term, Cooksey worked for the U.S. Justice Department as a civil‑rights attorney. He told his daughter that “some stories were pretty scary…being in some danger being a civil‑rights attorney in “Alabama,” South Texas and other southern states.”

He also served as an attorney for the Texas Office of the Attorney General and in private practice.

At his 50th birthday party in Zilker Park, Kathryn Pew recalled a “rainbow” of people of every race, creed, color and socioeconomic status.

Cooksey cared deeply about the homeless, civil‑rights issues and was proud of his role in making Austin a sanctuary city. “He was kind to everyone,” Pew said. “He worked his way through school. He did not lord his position over people. He really used his power for good, not evil.”

Family Reflections

Cooksey’s daughter, Kathryn Pew, said that a secondary cause of death may have been a broken heart because of all the important changes he made in society being dismantled over the last year.

She also recalled that her father had “some stories that were pretty scary…being in some danger being a civil‑rights attorney in “Alabama,” South Texas and other southern states.”

On Monday morning, Cooksey was hospitalized for a fall and head injury. He died at the age of 92 on December 15, 2025.

Key Takeaways

• Former mayor Frank C. Cooksey died at 92 after a fall and head injury.
• He served as Austin’s mayor from 1985 to 1988, championing growth management and environmental protection.
• Cooksey’s post‑mayoral career included civil‑rights work for the U.S. Justice Department and the Texas Office of the Attorney General.

Photographs accompany the story: one shows Cooksey (center) with his sister Sylvia Cooksey Newsom (left) and wife Lynn (right) on the day of his death, and another captures him on June 3, 2024, his 91st birthday.