Lily Watkins was born on Dec. 20, 1934, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Her father, Wolf Watkins, was a British engineer who had moved to Latin America searching for enterprise alternatives and located them whereas servicing the area’s booming rail business. Her mom, Annita (Noudelman) Watkins, a homemaker, had fled her native Ukraine within the face of antisemitic pogroms.
Mr. Watkins owned a rail automotive manufacturing facility in Mesquita, within the state of Rio de Janeiro, the place he quickly moved along with his younger household. He turned a city elder, and even at present the city’s most important road, Rua Mister Watkins, bears his identify.
When Lily Watkins was 19, she moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, the place she married Mario Cohen, a hosiery magnate. They had three youngsters however a rocky marriage, they usually quickly divorced.
She returned to Brazil, and in 1965 she married Alfredo Monteverde, a Romanian immigrant who had been born a Greenberg however Hispanicized his surname. He made a fortune proudly owning a series of equipment shops, however he additionally struggled with despair. He died by suicide in 1969, leaving her some $200 million.
Mrs. Safra’s survivors embody a daughter, Adriana Cohen; a son, Eduardo Cohen; and a number of other grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Complete survivor info was not instantly accessible.
After Mr. Monteverde’s dying, she moved to London. She met Mr. Safra, the scion of a Lebanese service provider household, when she requested for his assist in dealing with her sudden wealth. They started relationship, although his spiritual Sephardic household disliked his extra secular Ashkenazic girlfriend, they usually broke up.