SAN ANTONIO – District 6 City Councilman Ray Lopez has known his wife for half a century.
“We’re high school sweethearts,” Evelyn Lopez said with a smile.
She was an incoming freshman at Harlandale High School when Ray Lopez was about to be a sophomore, with a car.
“My mother-in-law to this day reminds me that she couldn’t stand me when I was growing up,” Ray Lopez said.
After 45 years of marriage and four children, the couple’s family is still growing.
“We have 10-point-something grandchildren,” Ray Lopez said. “We’re about to have out 11th grandchild.”
“It’s a girl!” Evelyn Lopez said.
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“They jokingly call me -- instead of grandpa, they call me grumpy,” Ray Lopez said.
Lopez retired from a long career with AT&T in 2009, just months before his first City Council election.
“I never saw a difference,” Ray Lopez said. “You got up in the morning, put on a suit and went to work.”
For the past seven years, he has represented District 6, an area that spans parts of the west and northwest sides of town.
His City Council job often makes for 50- to 60-hour work weeks. But sometimes, if he’s lucky, he can squeeze that work into 20 or 30 hours and head out to Medina Lake or Canyon Lake to spend time on his boat.
What does he like about his time on the water?
“Nobody can walk up to you with a microphone,” he jokes. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Part of it is the peaceful serenity of it.”
Ray Lopez is now serving his final term as a city councilman. He's maxed out his term limit.
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He's not eliminating any options when thinking about what he'll do next, but the woman who stole his heart at Harlandale will be there by his side.
“I have more than just a supportive wife. What’s important about that is that there are days when we're not going to have a good day,” he said. “There will be days when there will be a line or two in the paper that are maybe not real flattering because you've taken a position one way or the other. And your spouse has to be part of that.”