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Have you ever wondered how the local luminaries live? Well, now’s your chance to take a tour of the houses of photographer Laura Wilson, fashion diva Jan Strimple, and philanthropist Nance Champman.
By Adam McGill |

ART SMART
Laura and Bob Wilson

Photographer Laura Wilson and her husband Bob, who was the first president of KERA-TV Channel 13, have lived in their Preston Hollow house for 21 years. Their actor sons Andrew, Owen, and Luke grew up there. Laura describes it modestly.

“It’s just a kind of ordinary house built in 1939, but we’ve opened it up and adapted it to the way we live,” she says. True enough, the house feels open in a way contemporary houses often feel. The 2 acres of treed property on which the house sits provide landscapes outside of every window.

But to find art at the Wilson house, one should look at the walls, not through the windows. The entryway, for instance, is lined with black-and-white photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jacques Henri Lartique, Richard Avedon, Bill Brandt, and Laura herself.

HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS: A large Richard Avedon print on the front entrance wall.

The décor is American, with furniture from Laura’s family in New England and things she’s collected. As an assistant to Richard Avedon for his series “In the American West,” Laura built up—and continues to add to—the Wilsons’ collection of Navajo weavings from the 1800s, colorful rugs, and blankets.

The Wilsons also own numerous prints of John James Audubon’s Quadrupeds. Audubon did the works in the 1840s after completing his more renowned Birds of North America. The lithographs are exquisite studies of animals in their natural habitats. Laura says she particularly likes the ones that are fierce.

“The house has evolved with our interests,” Laura says. And it continues to grow: the Wilsons are currently adding a guest house. “It’s still a work in progress,” she says.

FASHION FORWARD
Jan and Dan Strimple

Not surprisingly, Jan and Dan Strimple’s garden home in Irving’s Old Hospital District is reminiscent of the fashion diva’s runway lifestyle. A portrait of her by Dallas artist Siros hangs in the entrance. A bust from the first mannequin made in her likeness rests by a breakfast table. A Bob Mackie poster for The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, for which she modeled, hangs outside their bedroom.

But the fashion industry has had other, less noticeable influences on the décor. The color of the walls in the front powder room matches a pair of shoes Jan liked. After seeing a particularly fetching pair of gloves in Vogue, she had the feet of her mother’s old chairs built to match. The centerpiece of the dining room table is adorned with a belt buckle and earrings.

“We all develop an eye in our fields,” Jan says. “My field happens to be fashion.”

IN THE BEDROOM: A motorized window covering keeps Jan’s closet hidden. The floor is made of paper.

Jan describes her home as a series of small vignettes and likens it to the way she dresses. Let a distinctive end table be the perfect accessory to the cocktail dress of a room, like the tabletop she made out of broken china. More often than not, her home accessory of choice is colored glass, giving pop to an otherwise neutral environment.

Dan, a golf pro who runs the Fundamental Golf School, has his space, too. Upstairs, he has a still-in-progress “Hogan Room” dedicated to Ben Hogan and filled with golf memorabilia. Also, in the side yard, he has an undulating, artificial turf putting green. Look closely, though, and you’ll make sense of the undulations. Jan had it built in the shape of a naked woman, truly testing Dan’s concentration.

LIVING LARGE
Nance and Ron Chapman

Highland Park is known for its stately homes—homes so grand and luxurious that they hardly seem livable, let alone lived in. Not so at the Chapmans. Nance and Ron’s house, Tuscan by way of New Orleans, is full of very nice things, but it’s still a home that invites you to kick your feet up on the table.
If the house doesn’t invite you to do so, the hostess certainly will.

“We try to live in every room,” Nance says. “That’s the way we built it.”

A LITTLE ITALY: The formal dining room, where the Champmans host luncheons and dinners.

The Chapmans have been in the house for a little more than a year, but they had about three years to shop for it. Designer Nancy Ross helped the Chapmans balance their wants and needs. Philanthropist Nance loves character and charm. Ron, though a disc jockey on Oldies Radio 98.7 KLUV (until his June retirement), loves things that are new. Ross went to work.

The focus of the house is a room Nance calls the “keeping room,” a large, open kitchen with natural light, plenty of seating, ivy growing on the brick walls, and a fireplace. But the truly impressive rooms are upstairs: the his-and-her closets. Nance’s closet is large enough for her office to fit in the corner. Ron’s has a recliner, and a flat-screen TV hangs from the ceiling.

“Our house probably wouldn’t appeal to anyone but us,” Nance says. “It’s not a terribly big house, but it’s where our story begins every day.”

Wilson Photography: Nan Coulter; Strimple and Chapman: Danny Piassick

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