Berniece Bennett, known as the "Matriarch of Westlake Village" for her influential role in the city's incorporation, has died. She was 75.

Bennett died on Sunday, with her family at her side, at her home after battling cancer.

Bennett was elected to Westlake Village's first City Council in 1981, the same year the city was incorporated. She was the first woman to serve as mayor. It was a position she held for three terms.

"Mother Westlake" was described by family, friends and colleagues as an involved, generous and direct woman who was committed to helping people and her community.

"I was always impressed," Ray Taylor, Westlake Village's city manager, said of Bennett, who was mayor when he interviewed for his position in 1992. "I consider her to be one of the very, very best local officials that I worked with."

In 1968, the Bennetts moved to a newly built home in an area of Westlake Village known as First Neighborhood. Bennett immersed herself in community organizations, including the First Neighborhood Homeowners Association and the Westlake Joint Board of Homeowner Associations, which she helped found.

Bennett launched the daunting effort to make Westlake Village a city after hearing that residents in neighboring Agoura Hills wanted to include it in its sphere of influence as it sought cityhood, Kris Carraway-Bowman said.

"She helped to establish the culture of the City Council," Carraway-Bowman said, adding her friend was savvy when it came to understanding the business of running a city.

"Not only did she establish the ambiance of manners and sophistication and treating each other respectfully, there was a culture of respect on the City Council which she instituted."

Carraway-Bowman and Doug Yarrow, who also served on the City Council, said Bennett was dedicated to what was best for the city, even if it meant taking unpopular stands that ultimately ensured the city's fiscal health.

"Her first question and her only question was What's best for Westlake Village?'" Yarrow said.

Bennett also was passionate about her work with the Wellness Community Valley/Ventura, a nonprofit organization that serves to assist cancer patients and their families.

"Berniece was one of our most passionate supporters and fundraisers," said Suzanne Drace, the Wellness Community's president. Amid her civic duties and her volunteer work with the Westlake Village Junior Women's Club, the National Charity League and the Spastic Children's Foundation, Bennett, who was born in Morland, Kan., is being remembered as a dedicated wife and mother who created a welcoming home for the friends of her three children.

"Of all the activities she did she always made sure there were meals and hot food and the kids were well taken care of," Floyd Bennett said of the woman a buddy introduced him to when he was in the service.

She attended business school in Kansas City and went on to work for the state of Kansas until she married Floyd Bennett in 1952 and the two moved to Las Cruces, N.M., where she worked for the dean of students at New Mexico State University.

Early in their marriage, Floyd Bennett got a hint of his wife's drive and foresight.

She promptly listed several goals, including saving money, when they arrived in New Mexico to attend school.

"I am so lucky to have married such a beautiful, brilliant woman," he remembered thinking to himself at the time. "She was a doll."

She is survived by her husband, son Stephen Bennett, daughter Lisa Bennett David, and son Eugene Campbell, their spouses, six grandchildren, sister Deloris Runnells of Santa Ana, stepbrother Gary Nicholson of Eugene, Ore., an aunt and an uncle.

A public "celebration of life" service will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 32111 Watergate Road, Westlake Village at 3 p.m. Monday. A reception will immediately follow.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that contributions be made in Berniece Bennett's name to either the Wellness Community, 530 Hampshire Road, Westlake Village, CA 91361, or the Assisted Home Care Hospice, 468 Pennsfield Place, Suite 100, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360.