Events

Ebby Halliday Knows How to Turn 100

By Andrea Grimes Wed., Jan. 19 2011 at 2:24 PM
Categories: Events
ebbyball1.jpg
Photos by Andrea Grimes
Ebby Halliday still has it, two months from her 100th birthday, which will be celebrated at the Meyerson Symphony Center on March 9.
​Everybody who lives to be 100 years old should get a party in their honor at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. That should simply be a fact of life. It isn't, though, and for now we'll have to settle with celebrating the centennials of only the most influential of Texans in Dallas's stunning Arts District.

First up: Ebby Halliday, arguably Texas's most successful Realtor, who will turn 100 on March 9. At a press conference last night featuring H. Ross Perot and a whole bunch of very stylish people, Halliday was celebrated as an inspirational woman and endless giver.

"I feel like the luckiest 100-year-old gal in the world," Halliday told the gathered press and glitterati, after a 17-minute thank-you speech that covered her time selling face cream on horseback for a two-cent profit and that time she met Dirk "Nowitzlewski" of the Dallas Mavericks. Myrna and Bob Schlegel generously donated their third-floor basketball gym for the conference and the rest of their estate for a giant fancy party that followed.

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​There were cupcakes and Champagne and many wisecracks from that well-known joker, H. Ross Perot, who said Halliday "leads the way" in the category of caring for other people. Speaking of her unprecedented success in the real estate business, Perot noted: "That's a long way from selling skin cream!"

The March 9 concert -- Halliday's birthday happened to be the only night the Meyerson had open, howboutthat? -- will feature a performance by Mario Frangoulis and his stunning jaw line and fund scholarships for Texas students via the Horatio Alger Association.
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Damah307
Damah307

Thank you Ebby...Your Realtor Linda helped my mom and I find a perferct home. It was touch and go but you came through for us in 2005. And all the cards.I want forge because you are having your celebration on my my mom 60th Birthday.D. Rankin

Justin
Justin

I worked at the Mapsco store at Preston / Forest in the late 90s when I was in high school and Ebby came in to buy a new Mapsco. We got into this long conversation about how Dallas had grown and she felt like she'd grown up with it, and she had bought Mapscos every year. I mentioned to her that I thought her old Mapscos would have been neat to look at. The next day at work one of her underlings brought me Ebby's 1978 Mapsco, all marked up with properties and stars and little doodles in pencil. I still have it, of course.

MattL1
MattL1

Wow, that would really be an interesting collection to peruse. Well, interesting to nerds like me who are into historical cartography.

I wonder if Mapsco has its own collection from years past. Would make an interesting museum/library exhibit.

Justin
Justin

I worked there until 2006, and they had donated all of the old ones to the UT Arlington library.

Nick R.
Nick R.

Did they play My Morning Jacket's One Big Halliday?

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