Why she matters
Billie Gentry was on the Scottsdale City Council longer than anyone else of her era: sixteen years, from 1970 to 1986. Her terms ran through the decisive years of the Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt, from the bond of 1973 to the dedication of 1985, and the city’s historic context calls her “a vocal champion for the greenbelt concept.” Her name is on a 2019 redevelopment beside the wash.
Where to find her work today
The Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt. The parks, lakes and golf courses that carry the wash’s floods were built while she sat on the council.
Before the council
Gentry came to city government through its parks and its citizen committees. The council appointed her to the Parks and Recreation Commission on November 2, 1965, months after Bill Walton had joined it to chair its Indian Bend Wash committee; the East Valley Tribune later said she chaired the commission. She served on the STEP college committee Paul Messinger chaired and on the 1969–70 STEP community development committee, which recommended the 60-foot height limit and federal redevelopment of the blocks west of the Civic Center and of Vista del Camino.
On the council
She won a council seat in 1970, alongside Herb Drinkwater, and was re-elected in 1974, 1978 and 1982. The record names her among the council that adopted the 1973 charter amendments, the greenbelt’s density-for-floodway bargain and the 1977 Hillside ordinance, but no vote, motion or speech of hers is online. In 1986 she was one of three incumbents unseated, with Jean Black and Diane Cusack. The city’s canvass has her last of six on March 25, with 4,075 votes against 8,043 for the leader, future Mayor Sam Campana; the East Valley Tribune’s obituary called the winners a slate of challengers. The 1980s politics chapter has the race.
Later years
From 1991 to 1996 she served on the Arizona State Parks Board, which the Tribune said she also chaired. She was named to the Scottsdale History Hall of Fame. She died in November 2008; the Tribune’s notice said her age was unavailable.
What the record doesn’t show
- Her birth year, her work outside city government, and a full obituary.
- Any vote, motion or statement of hers on the greenbelt, height, Hillside or the barrio clearance.
- Why she lost in 1986, beyond the challengers’ slate.