Gloria Padilla

Gloria Padilla’s 42-year newspaper career spanned five newspapers in four cities, the last 35 at the San Antonio Express-News. At each stop, she took scoundrels to task, celebrated the brave, turned over rocks, cooked up plenty of food for thought, and made the communities she served all the better for it.

She died June 1 of heart disease at age 68.

She was born July 6, 1957 in Brownsville, Texas, the seventh of 12 children of Absolon and Luisa Padilla. Journalism was the only career she considered, and she was in a hurry to start — graduating high school at 17 and earning her Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in less than four years. She quickly landed her first job at the Burnet County Bulletin in the Texas Hill Country, where she was reporter, photographer and doer of whatever else needed doing.

A year later, she moved on to Laredo, where she worked at both the Laredo Morning News and the Laredo Morning Times from 1979 to 1982, covering City Hall. The Corpus Christi Caller Times was her next stop, and for four years she covered the federal courts, writing about South Texas drug trafficking, the Bandido motorcycle club and the undocumented moving through and around the Sarita, Texas checkpoint.

She arrived at the San Antonio Express-News in 1986 and would remain there for almost 35 years, the first 14 as a reporter covering courts and county government, one legislative session in Austin, and higher education. Then came two decades as a columnist and member of the Editorial Board, where she could express her hard-earned opinions about injustice, corruption and countless other worthy topics. Even in her new role, she continued to break news through her reporting.

After retiring in 2021, she took up gardening, baking, 3-D printing, traveling the world with her husband of 39 years, and volunteering at the nonprofit Spare Parts and the Frosting Creators of San Antonio.

In 1987, she married fellow reporter Don Finley. They welcomed a daughter, Hannah, in 1995. On May 27, five days before her passing, she was able and delighted to hold her newborn first grandchild, Mabel June Miller, at St. David’s Hospital in Austin.

In addition to her husband, survivors include daughter Hannah Miller and her husband Clay Miller of Austin; sisters Juanita Torres, Lupita Bazaldu and Trinie Perez of Brownsville, Diana Shields and Letty Padilla of Houston; brothers Tony Padilla, Luis Padilla and Salon Padilla, all of Brownsville; one grandchild; and many nieces, nephews and cousins. She was preceded in death by her parents; sisters Ofelia Torres and Maria Banuelos; and brother Jesus Padilla.

Arrangements are with Sunset Memorial Park & Funeral Home. Time and place of a memorial service are pending.