Helen Wilkes

[2] However, by taking no days off, she saved enough of her income to purchase a $3,500 house in nearby Lake Park, Florida, which she converted into a nursing home with a capacity for nine residents.

[1][2] She owned and operated the residential retirement hotel for more than 30 years, until the building was purchased by the city government of West Palm Beach and demolished in 2005.

[2] She was elected West Palm Beach's first female Mayor by the City Commission on March 30, 1978.

[2][4] In a 1987 interview, Wilkes considered her greatest political achievements to be the creation of West Palm Beach's first crime watch patrol.

[2] Wilkes also worked with Eva Williams Mack, who was elected West Palm Beach's first African-American Mayor by the City Commission on March 25, 1982,[5] to improve relations between the city's black and white communities.