The Texas Senate and House of Representatives honored Olive Stephens, mayor of Shady Shores, for 46 years of public service with concurrent resolutions in Austin on Thursday afternoon.

The Senate resolution, introduced by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, and passed without objection, recognized Stephens, 92, as a pioneer, mentor and role model for women serving in elected office.

As family members looked on, Stephens stood in the chamber doors wearing a bright red jacket and flanked by her grandsons, James and Gerald McBride. Nelson described Stephens as “an excellent steward of community funds,” holding bake sales and pancake suppers rather than taxing residents.

Incorporated in 1960, Shady Shores did not adopt a property tax until 2000.

Nelson called her the dean of female mayors, and likely the oldest one in Texas. The only Texas mayor reported as older than Stephens, David Abernathy of Pittsburg, died not long after he resigned in 2003.

Neither the Texas Secretary of State nor the Texas Municipal League, of which nearly every Texas city is a member, keeps records that could verify who is the state’s oldest mayor.

Some news outlets have reported the nation’s oldest mayor as Dorothy Geeben, the 101-year-old mayor of Ocean Breeze Park, a mobile home community near Port St. Lucie, Fla.

In an interview Wednesday before leaving, Stephens said she’d never been able to go to Austin for Denton County Days or to lobby for legislation Shady Shores needed.

Thursday’s whirlwind schedule included flying down in the morning and eating lunch in the Capitol cafeteria before heading to the Senate and then to the House, to receive a similar recognition sponsored by Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, before heading right back home.

After Sen. David Dewhurst hit the gavel, Nelson gave Stephens a hug and retrieved the official resolution in a big, blue folder and presented it to her.

Stephens said she had no special plans for the remainder of the day.

“I have a council meeting on Monday and an agenda to get out,” she said.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.