Ebby Halliday (born Vera Lucille Koch; March 9, 1911 – September 8, 2015) was an American
realtor
A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...
and businesswoman who founded ''
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Berkshire Hathaway Home Services is a residential real estate services company. The company provides real estate brokerage services, mortgage loan origination, franchising, title insurance/escrow and Closing (real estate), closing services, Home ...
''.
She was one of the first successful female
entrepreneurs in
Dallas and is recognized as the "First Lady of Real Estate". John S. Baen, a professor of real estate at the University of North Texas in Denton comments,
''she was the first woman to enter what was a chauvinistic profession in a macho state'' and that ''she beat those ol' boys at their own game.''
Halliday was born in
Leslie, Arkansas
Leslie is a city in Searcy County, Arkansas, Searcy County, Arkansas, United States. Located within the Boston Mountains, the most rugged subset of The Ozarks, the city was founded as a railroad and lumber town. Renamed from the original Wiley's Co ...
, and graduated from high school in
Abilene, Kansas
Abilene (pronounced ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Dickinson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,460. It is home of The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum and the G ...
, in 1929. She got a $10-a-week job selling women's hats at
The Jones Store in
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
. In less than a year, she was the top salesperson. In 1938, she was asked to take over the millinery department at Dallas' W.A. Green Store. Soon she had her own Dallas boutique, Ebby's Hats. She founded her real estate company in 1945.
Halliday married former
FBI agent Maurice Acers in 1965. Maurice Acers died in 1993. She
celebrated her 100th birthday on March 9, 2011. She died at the age of 104 on September 8, 2015 in her sleep, with her friends and family by her side.
Halliday received the
Horatio Alger Award
The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, that was founded in 1947 to honor the achievements of outstanding Americans who have succeeded in spite of adversity and to emphas ...
in 2005.
See also
*
List of centenarians (businesspeople)
References
External links
Ebby Halliday, 98, visits client, 97– The Dallas Morning News
Official siteTop 280 Companies ranked by 2003 sales volume
&ndash
realtor.orgFebruary 2006 Newsletter
– Farmers Branch Chamber of Commerce
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halliday, Ebby
1911 births
2015 deaths
People from Abilene, Kansas
People from Dallas
American real estate businesspeople
American centenarians
People from Searcy County, Arkansas
Women centenarians