Roy Mark Hofheinz (April 10, 1912 – November 22, 1982), popularly known as Judge Hofheinz or "The Judge", was a Texas state representative from 1935 to 1937 (44th legislature), county judge of Harris County, Texas from 1936 to 1944, and mayor of the city of Houston from 1953 to 1956.
Early and personal life
Hofheinz was born on April 10, 1912, in Beaumont, Texas. The Hofheinz family moved to Houston in 1924. In the summer of 1928, Hofheinz was an aide at the Democratic National Convention held in Houston; he befriended future U.S. senator and president Lyndon B. Johnson at the convention.
He married Irene ("Dene", née Cafcalas; 1912–1966) in 1933, a fellow law student; together they had three children: Roy Jr. (1935–2023), Fred (1938–), and Dene (1942–). The two had met at the University of Houston in 1929. After the death of his first wife, Hofheinz married his divorced executive assistant, Mary Frances (née Gougenheim) on April 10, 1969. Hofheinz survived a stroke in 1970 that left him in a wheelchair; he eventually died in 1982 from an apparent heart attack.
Judge Hofheinz was known for his cigar habit; in a 1969 profile for Sports Illustrated he gently chided the author, Tex Maule: "Don't say 'smoke.' 'Consume' is the word. I chew a lot of them and give some away." He preferred the Sans Souci Perfecto cigar, approximately long, consuming 25 per day. In 1956, he purchased the Cochran-Hofheinz House; the house had originally been built for banker Owen L. Cochran around 1912. and the Celestial Suites on the ninth floor of the Astroworld Hotel, with interiors designed by Harper Goff, which Elvis Presley reportedly found too gaudy. Hofheinz decamped from the Judge's Quarters in the Astrodome in 1972; the suite was removed in 1988. The Celestial Suites are still present on the top floor of the Astroworld Hotel (now a Crowne Plaza), but have not been used recently.
Hofheinz purchased a historic River Oaks mansion (also known as the T.J. and Ruth Bettes House, originally completed in 1928) in 1980 and lived there until his death in 1982. The city of Houston designated the Bettes House a historic landmark in 2009; The Cochran-Hofheinz House was so designated in 2005.
In 1952, Hofheinz was elected to the first of two terms as Mayor of Houston. His son Fred served as mayor of Houston in the 1970s.