STREET TALK

No one has ever accused Mayor Starke Taylor of being the most politically savvy man to hold office, but it’s clear from his record for appointing women to city boards and commissions that he realizes that they’re an influential political force.

Of the 10 appointments the mayor has made during his term, seven have been women. Two of those are Mary Ellen Degnan and Adlene Harrison, both members of the DART Board. Taylor created a child-care task force and appointed a woman to head it, and he also backed Betty Marcus, who now fills his position as president of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board.

Still, women are watching him. That’s why he can’t let even minor women’s issues slip past him and not expect to feel some fallout.

A prime slip occurred last Ml when he unknowingly riled three influential Dallas women because he failed to respond to a letter they sent requesting a meeting with him to discuss forming a local commission for women. (Dallas is one of the only major cities in Texas that doesn’t have one.)

Dallas attorney and Equal Rights Amendment supporter Hermine Tobolowsky, Dallas County Democratic Party secretary and black issues supporter Bernice Conley and publisher Anne Dickson sent Taylor a letter last August as members of the Governor’s Commission for Women, which was founded last year to aid the governor in finding qualified women to fill appointed state positions. A month after the letter was sent, Dickson called the mayor’s office but was told by the mayor’s assistant and political advisor, Judy Bonner Amps, that the mayor didn’t see the commission for women as a “pressing issue.”

Amps now says that the mayor was never opposed to the concept of the commission, but she regrets that the letter “slipped through the cracks” of city government after it was sent to the city manager’s office for evaluation. “I don’t think he [Mayor Taylor] felt a sense of urgency, but he was trying to get some more information,” Amps says.



Now that J.R. Ewing’sResistol cowboy hat is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s “Nation of Nations” entertainment collection, Dallasites will have something to brag about when they travel to Washington, D.C. Actor Larry Hagman,who has played the villainous J.R. on the Dallastelevision series since 1978, recently donated his hat to the museum. It will be displayed alongside other famous film props, such as Archie Bunker’schair from the television series All in the Familyand Dorothy’sruby slippers from the movie The Wizard of Oz.Hagman’s donation also puts Garland on the map, since Resistol Hats is headquartered there.



Former Dallas Times Heraldpublisher Tom McCartin may be moving his business office to New York City, but according to the longtime Dallas resident and community leader, he’ll keep his home and family here. McCartin says it’s important to him that his sons graduate from Highland Park High School, where both are involved in sports. McCartin says that he’ll also remain active in an advisory capacity to the numerous civic organizations of which he is a member.

The former publisher left his post at the Times Herald in March to help the Times-Mirror Corp. (which owns the Times Herald) establish a new advertising company called Times-Mirror National Marketing. As president and chief executive officer of the marketing operation, McCartin says he hopes to open offices in New York, San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas during the next few months.