San Gabriel Valley : El Monte Official Remembered for Her Work

El Monte is mourning the loss of Vice Mayor Maria F. Avila, a longtime community activist and former school trustee, who died Monday after suffering a heart attack.

“It was a shock to all of us,” said City Administrator Greg Korduner, a friend and colleague for 14 years who spoke to Avila only hours before her death. “Although she had been ill off and on she always battled back. . . . It was a testimony to the type of person she was--a real fighter--that she always came back.”

Avila, 69, died at Greater El Monte Community Hospital, half an hour after she had a heart attack at her home while she was speaking on the telephone, authorities said.

An activist for four decades and the first Latina elected to the City Council, Avila was appointed to the council in 1992 and won election to the seat last year. Before becoming a council member, she served on the Mountain View school district board and was president of the county Commission on the Status of Women. She also was a board member of the Boys and Girls Club of the East San Gabriel Valley and president of the El Monte Comprehensive Health Authority.

Korduner said Avila’s legacy is a safer El Monte with more cops and firefighters. He said his last conversation with her Monday afternoon was about her concern over securing a financial future for the city that would maintain public safety for its citizens.