 In 1911 Willacy introduced a bill to form a new county out of parts of Cameron and Hidalgo counties, and the resulting new county was named in his honor.He moved from Corpus Christi to San Antonio in 1912, and in the early 1920s was state tax commissioner under Governor Pat Morris Neff.Willacy died in San Antonio on September 19, 1943, and was buried in San José Cemetery.