The Most Powerful Women In Dallas And Fort Worth

Power is where you find it, and women draw power from the same wells that men do. They may handle it differently, but that’s a matter of style. The sources are the same. Some are obvious, like wealth, social standing or political office. Others seem obvious too, once you’ve thought about them. Clearly, control over credit, jobs and information would be important. One must also take into account those less apparent, intangible sources of power like education, identification with a religious or ethnic group and just plain stamina.

In writing about women not only to political science for practical and intellectual guidance, but also to literature, where I found A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf the best and most authentic thinking on the subject. This slender, graceful essay, surely the wittiest of Woolf’s writing, comes inexorably to the bottom line: if you want to find powerful women, look first for those with independent means, not large, but indisputably their own. If they manage the money themselves, or earn it, so much the better. That means they’re learning more about how the world works. It’s not a ’ matter of spending power, which is not really power at all. The issue is knowledge of credit, markets, law, taxes, accounting, and that knowledge indeed is power. Small wonder Eve was promised Eden if she would forswear all contact with the money tree that grows both good and evil.

This list of powerful women is arranged along the lines of civic leadership, politics, the professions and business. It does not take into account the real impact of tastemakers who open restaurants or boutiques and set new market trends with their originality, or of social pacesetters whose dinner parties inform and sustain the established order and are frequently a rite of passage to some of the most exclusive sanctuaries of the powerful. We are dealing here with women who directly influence our public life and institutions.

This list should not be presented without comment on the considerable presence of women associated with Texas Instruments. They are marching in where Eugene McDer-mott, Erik Jonsson, Cecil Green and Patrick Haggerty have led the way, and they reflect as favorably on the company as their husbands, fathers and mentors have. It would be useful to know the secret of a business enterprise that can create great wealth and also create great people who know how to use it wisely and well.

Power works in wondrous ways. It’s a volatile commodity that doesn’t take well to abuse, over-use or over-estimation. Much of the time it lies dormant, carefully waiting for the right moment to assert itself. Reputation for power and real power are not the same thing, though one can be converted to the other on specific occasions for specific purposes. Here are some of the women in Dallas and Fort Worth who can be expected to cash in their power chips from time to time, when the moment and the issues are right.

There is no final authority on power, which is shifting all the time along with the geological faults of these two cities. Constantly it concentrates, then diffuses itself, provoking here, compensating there, pulling the body politic apart and together at the same time, investing itself in certain people today, others tomorrow. Chances are some of you know women as demonstrably powerful as those mentioned here. It would be a good idea if you let us know about them too.

THE NINE MOST POWERFUL



SARAH I. HUGHES probably has more power more days of the year than any other woman in Dallas. That’s the nature of the Federal Judiciary, whose influence is often underestimated, or not acknowledged at all, by makers of lists like these. Being 81 and on senior status deters her not in the slightest. Sarah Hughes presides over the future of the Dallas County Jail. It is to please her that Dallas County Commissioners have called a bond election for next June. They held out as long as they could, but the Judge’s orders are not to be taken lightly. She means business, and always has.

ANNETTE STRAUSS does her homework. She’s an expert fund-raiser who’s drawn hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Symphony, the Theater Center and other performing arts. She approaches her prospects with reliable information on what they can afford to give, and she won’t be happy with anything less. She has an eye for detail, an ear for nuance and an instinct for the uses of silence. She makes good use of what she learns while listening. Like most of the Strausses, she never makes enemies unnecessarily. Her door is always open to future possibilities.

BEA HAGGERTY is the first woman in the nation to be named president of a major city’s United Way. It has long been the top civic job in Dallas. She won it with her singular ability at budgeting and with an unerring instinct for the big picture.

ADLENE HARRISON, Mayor Pro Tem, has spent years in the vineyard of city politics,, and she’s a seasoned pro. She knows the territory. She has a way of being in the right place at the right time. She was on the City Plan Commission when the environmental movement came along and carried her to prominence. Once on the Council, she identified herself with consumer interests and made utility rates her issue. She was out-maneuvered by Bob Folsom in this year’s race for Mayor, but anyone who counts her out of power politics hasn’t added up her strengths correctly.

RUTH CARTER JOHNSON is part Medici and part pioneer woman. Her influence goes far beyond her own family projects, like the Amon Carter Museum, named for her father, to public works at City Hall, where a forceful personality and authoritative taste accomplish the impossible: bending politicians towards a policy of aesthetic excitement. She gave the Water Gardens to Fort Worth, then won from the city a commitment to maintain them. She was instrumental in persuading the Council to buy a George Rickey sculpture for City Hall. It was probably their best investment of the year.

MARGARET McDERMOTT has touched the lives of most of the city’s major institutions, but her special favorites have been the Museum, where she’s been active all her life, and the Dallas County Community College District, which she helped bring into being. She serves on the Board of Republic National Bank and also on the board of the holding company, Republic of Texas Corporation, and there are no higher business roles in the city. Deeply rooted in the intellectual and artistic community, she has friendships that stretch back over many years, and she’s as firmly loyal to their causes as she is to her own. She stands for civility and civilization. She puts herself at the disposal of her convictions.

BETTY MARCUS brings formidable abilities and the style and stature of a famous name to any institution she serves. She knows how to generate constituencies based on ideas. She knows how to invite outsiders in and make them feel comfortable. She sets objectives and then achieves them, with dispatch when possible, with patience when necessary. Her impact at the Museum and at Channel 13 has been considerable.

NELLE JOHNSTON knows all there is to know about Dallas. She learned it from the inside at the pinnacle of power, as executive assistant to former Mayor Erik Jonsson. Anyone who supposes that she’s a satellite of his, however, makes a mistake. Nobody rides very far on the efforts of other people. Nelle Johnston has always relied on her own considerable competence to judge people, assess information, and move both in the right direction.

I DA GREEN , a consummate philanthropist, embraces the small effort along with the large, understanding that a week-long lecture program for TCU journalism students can mean just as much as the Greek sculpture at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Her approach to giving is quintessen-tially human, in scale, and all she asks in return is that it do some good. There’s moral authority in that way of working, which means that when Ida Green speaks, people listen.

THE SECOND TIER

PEARL C. ANDERSON, philanthropist, came into her own long before there was any political good perceived in bringing, black women aboard. Pearl C. Anderson is and always was extraordinary. Clearly she likes to swim upstream, acquiring an education, a taste for giving, and civic stature against all odds. She’s managed to turn grit and drive into grace and dignity. That’s staying power, and it’s the most important kind of all.

LOUISE RAGGIO, attorney, took the lead in rewriting the Family Code of Texas, and what’s more remarkable, in persuading the Legislature to pass it. Her efforts put the state in the forefront of American family law.

BETTY ANDUJAR. State Senator from Fort Worth and President Pro Tem of the Texas Senate, not to mention Republican National Committeewoman, accumulates influence without seeming to try. She’s clever enough to make common ground of women’s issues and Reagan philosophy and there she takes her stand, appealing to both left and right.

LILLIAN BRADSHAW, Director of the Dallas Public Library, presides over 474 employees in 18 locations with an annual budget of $7 1/2 million. Hers is one of the best run public institutions in the city. A woman of foresight, she lined up a location, architectural plans and powerful support for a new downtown central research library before similar ideas had crystalized in the minds of museum and performing arts people. As a result, she may well be the first to get her building.

YVONNE EWELL, woman in the hot seat of Dallas schools, is in charge of predominantly black South Oak Cliff, the district where Judge William M. Taylor’s desegregation plan will make it or fail. She’s adroit enough to carry the water on both shoulders, faithfully representing the district and the community to each other without compromising the vital center of either one.

SARAH HASKINS, School Board member, with a good chance to become president if Bill Hunter doesn’t run again in the spring elections. Pressed by federal law and judicial directive, the School Board does not have a wide latitude in which to act, but it does sit astride the major public business facing Dallas. Sarah Haskins has a strong sense of responsibility, and no one knows better than she that the stakes are high in everything the schools do.

LOUISE COWAN, Graduate Dean of the University of Dallas, has brought intellectual integrity to everything she’s touched. No one in the city cares more deeply about the life of the mind than she does, and few have changed the lives of their students as profoundly as she has. She’s not content simply to stimulate the work of her proteges. She shepherds them to excellence and, wherever possible, situates them in jobs.

FLORENCE WIEDEMANN, SMU Department of Psychology, combines teaching and a heavy load of private counselling. Flo has made herself not only a thorough-going professional, but also a powerful role-model, whose impact has only begun to be felt.

OLIVE SHAPIRO, Chairman of the Dallas City Plan Commission, ten years ago, did a study tor the League of Women Voters on “Design of the City.” From there she became president of Save Open Spaces. She wrote the Turtle Creek Environmental Corridor Ordinance. Currently she’s working to rejuvenate Winnetka Heights, an old neighborhood in Oak Cliff not unlike East Dallas.

REAL COMERS



BETTY JO HAY, Texas College Coordinating Board, loves politics, and she’s getting in deeper every day. She ran as a Bentsen delegate in the spring primary of 1976, and after his fall, moved smoothly into the winning camp. It was she who accompanied Rosalynn Carter to the airport after a campaign appearance at the State Fair. She is a master of the art of political communication. She knows how to settle on a single point, so the listener will remember nothing else.

MARGARET CHARLTON, headed for the big time in civic Dallas. Already she sits on the board of First National Bank, interesting in itself, since her father, former Mayor Erik Jonsson, has always made Republic his financial base. Surely this is a signal that Margaret Charlton means to stand on her own. Look for her to be a woman to be reckoned with.

DIANA CLARK, City Arts Program, will be deeply involved in the politics of new housing for the museum and the performing arts Diana was Larry Kelly’s protege at the Dallas Civic Opera. Inevitably, after his death, she collided with Nicola Bescigno. No sooner had Diana left DCO when the city, the Symphony and Channel 13 began courting her with job offers. The city won, and in my opinion, won big.

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, State Representative, is well positioned in Democratic Party politics, which gives her a stronger base of operations than non-partisan posts like the City Council or School Board, which almost never lead to higher office.

LYN DUNSAVAGE, City Plan Commission, mastered the politics of historic preservation and built a constituency for saving old Dallas, especially Swiss Avenue and points East. Efforts like hers have generated a market for inner city redevelopment. Indeed it was Lynn and her colleagues who first demonstrated that a close-in residential project like Dave Fox’s just might work.

BONNIE WHEELER, English Department, SMU, is a long-shot for power in Dallas because she’s new to the city, and one never knows when another university might hire her away. The important thing is that she has a taste for power and audacious courage as well. Already Bonnie has taken a leading role in women’s rights issues at SMU. She was one of the first people James Zumberge dealt with when he arrived on campus as president.

VIRGINIA TALKINGTON, Historic Preservation League, operates on a national scale now, expanding her expertise to embrace all of the American past and make it viable for the future. Here at home, the new top-level drive to restore downtown Dallas could easily be traced to the energies she tapped and released only a few years ago. Of course, she’ll be deeply involved in it.

MELBA GREENLEE takes a professional approach to civic responsibility. She insists on a thorough knowledge of everything she undertakes. At Channel 13 she presides over the Board’s Program Committee. Her fund-raising efforts at the Museum have been spectacular. She’s on her way to significant influence, and may well create a whole new style of civic participation for women in Dallas.

WOMEN WITH A CAUSE



MAURA MCNIEL, mainstay of Women tor Change, under stands that there’s a time to thrust and a time to parry. Her influence varies with the fortunes of the Women’s Movement, but to count her out, ever, is a fundamental mistake. She knows how to pace herself, and she’s in it for the long haul. That makes the impact of her and the ideas she serves inevitable.

PAULETTE STANDEFER, Right to Life, strongly opposes abortion, and she approaches the issues with a high degree of sophistication. She knows all the moves, in media, in Congress and in the courts, and she’s certain to apply this expertise to a broad range of public business as time goes on.

SHIRLEY MILLER, called the Whip of the Dallas Commission on the Status of Women, took a large role in lobbying the Commission through the City Council, and she’ll be instrumental in keeping it alive.

CAROLYN GALERSTEIN, Dean of the School of General Study and currently Acting Dean of the Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas, brings solid credentials to her post as chairman of the city’s Commission on the Status of Women.

POLITICIANS WITH A FUTURE

HELEN HARRIS, highly respected strategist in Republican circles, was instrumental in putting together Alan Steelman’s winning challenge to the late Congressman Earl Cabell in 1972. Last year she saved Sheriff Carl Thomas’ primary campaign.

JUDY BONNER AMPS, political strategist and one of the best campaign managers in Dallas, is a master of data, demographics and issues. When the times are with her, she’s unbeatable. When the times are against her, she knows how to hold her losses to a minimum.

CHRIS MILLER, State Representative from Fort Worth, isn’t afraid to take on a tough opponent and draw out the issues in a way that hurts. She has energy looking for a place to go. With luck and another audacious race, she’ll probably find it.

NANCY JUDY, Executive Director of the Dallas County Republican Party, learned the difficulty of switching from non-partisan to party politics in her losing race for Congress last year. This new job could be an important springboard for her to Washington.

LIKELY TO REEMERGE

SYLVIA DEMEREST, former Executive Director of Dallas Legal Services, tried the school desegregation case in Judge William M. Taylor’s court, and now plans to start a private law practice. Her abilities are enormous and her professional integrity so intense that she draws admiration from all quarters of a case.

RITA CLEMENTS, former Republican National Committee-woman, is a past master of GOP campaigning. Her skills took her to Washington, where she married then Deputy Secretary of Defense William Clements and dropped her active party role for a while. She’ll be heard from again.

FRANCES RIZO, one-time member of the Dallas County Community Action Board, gave her colleagues fits in those bad old days. Very young at the time, with little education and three children, she had an uncanny instinct for pressure points. We’ll hear from her again.

CAROLYN BARTA. Assistant City Editor of the Dallas Morning News, accumulated a quiet kind of power in her previous post as political reporter. She had a respect for facts and a taste for exhaustive research that made her stories must reading. Her information could be trusted, and that’s power.

EX OFFICIO



Public office is visible power, though some office holders are more influential than others, depending on ability, finesse, ambition, and determination. But all of these women – judges, members of the City Council, the School Board, and the Plan Commission – have the final say when developers want zoning changes, or when laws are passed or challenged in court, so their potential power is unquestionable.

JOAN WINN

Judge, County Court at Law # 2

JUANITA CRAFT

Dallas City Council

ROSE RENFROE

Dallas City Council

MARGARET RIMMER

Fort Worth City Council Mayor Pro Tem

LUCY PATTERSON

Dallas City Council

ANNETTE STEWART

Judge, Domestic Relations Court # 1



MARTHA ADAMS, Fort Worth School Board

ELIZABETH BOECKMAN, Dallas City Plan Commission

KATHY CARTER, Dallas City Plan Commission

KATHLEEN DAY, Fort Worth City Plan Commission

KATHLYN GILLIAM, Dallas School Board

ROSEMARY HENDERSON, Dallas City Plan Commission

MARY JO LEE, Dallas City Plan Commission

HELEN PERKINS, Fort Worth City Plan Commission

PAT SHANNON, Fort Worth School Board

BUSINESS FIRST.

VIRGINIA COOK, president of Henry S. Miller Residential Services, is a master of motivation. Five years ago the Miller Companies bought a North Dallas real estate office managed by Cook and her husband. By 1976 the Miller sales force was selling $89 million annually in residential properties. Ms. Cook, who is very self-effacing, is known for motivating her 150 associates by treating them like a family. It works.

MARY KAY ASH perhaps is the best known woman’s name in Texas business. In 1963 she founded a cosmetic company which last year sold $45 million worth of wholesale cosmetics. She uses an imaginative system of incentives to inspire her 38,000 sales representatives, ranging from gifts of full length mink coats and diamond jewelry to the use of a pink Cadillac for a year. Her company is growing rapidly and already is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

EBBY HALLIDAY is probably the city’s best known name in residential real estate. Ms. Halliday has owned her own very successful firm since 1945. Besides working in real estate, she has taken on a number of civic tasks, ranging from serving as the first woman president of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce to serving on the Dallas Park Board.

KIM DAWSON is the first lady of Dallas fashion. She is director of the Kim Dawson Agency and fashion director of the Apparel Mart. Beginning as a Neiman’s model, Ms. Dawson built her model agency by organizing local models and by helping many young women get into the business. She has played a vital role in building Dallas into a fashion merchandising center. Her work at the Apparel Mart aids her modeling business while in turn her team of models helps the Apparel Mart. As one fashion expert puts it, “She built the sandbox we all play in.”