There will be a “celebration” Friday at 3 p.m. at Highland Park Presbyterian Church for Jack Jacobs, an executive VP and founding partner at Allie Beth Allman & Associates and, more importantly, the husband of luxury real estate maven Doris Jacobs. Jack, born John Francis Jacobs, died here Saturday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 82.
The founder and longtime owner of the Melody Shops—icons for years on Dallas’ retail-music scene—Jacobs spent the second half of his career helping his wife sell high-end homes in places like Highland Park and Preston Hollow.
The pair were also fixtures on the local charity scene. Doris would show up and joke about being mistaken—once again!—for former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. (They look remarkably alike.) Jack, an Irish twinkle in his eye, would carry on about his poker winnings—he did like to “play cards” a bit—or his recent great day betting the horses at Lone Star Park.
A straight-talking Boston native who’d served in the Marine Corps Reserves, Jack was also a guy who’d get right down to business. Once Lee Bailey, who’d helped her ex-husband, Ed Bailey, build a McDonald’s franchise empire, woke early in her then-mansion just off Turtle Creek to find a snake slithering around in the indoor swimming pool. She phoned Doris, who’d sold Lee the place, and Doris dispatched her husband to take care of the situation.
Pretty soon Jack pulled up in his Mercedes-Benz SL and stormed into the house toting a shotgun and some tree-trimming shears. When the snake reared up out of the pool, poised to strike, Jack coolly aimed the shotgun at it, only to hear Lee cry out from upstairs, “Jack, you are not shooting up my pool!”
They eventually eliminated the serpent by other means. But Jack, characteristically, had been ready to take care of things directly, in his own way. RIP.
