Lily Watkins was born on December 20, 1934 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Her father, Wolf Watkins, was a British engineer who had moved to Latin America in search of business opportunities and found them while serving the region’s thriving rail industry. Her mother, Annita (Noudelman) Watkins, a homemaker, had fled her native Ukraine over anti-Semitic pogroms.
Mr. Watkins owned a railcar factory in Mesquita, Rio de Janeiro state, where he soon moved with his young family. He became city elder and even today the city’s main street, Rua Mister Watkins, bears his name.
When Lily Watkins was 19, she moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, where she married Mario Cohen, a stocking mogul. They had three children, but a difficult marriage, and they soon divorced.
She returned to Brazil, and in 1965 she married Alfredo Monteverde, a Romanian immigrant who was born Greenberg but made his last name Spanish. He made a fortune from a chain of appliance stores, but he also struggled with depression. He died by suicide in 1969, leaving her with about $200 million.
Ms Safra’s survivors include a daughter, Adriana Cohen; a son, Eduardo Cohen; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Complete information on the survivor was not immediately available.
After the death of Mr. Monteverde she moved to London. She met Mr. Safra, the scion of a Lebanese merchant family, when she asked him for help in coping with her sudden wealth. They began dating, although his religious Sephardi family disliked his more secular Ashkenazi girlfriend, and they broke up.