Takeaways:
- Real estate icon Ebby Halliday, founder of huge Dallas brokerage Ebby Halliday Real Estate, died today at age 104.
- Halliday was revered in the industry.
- Ebby Halliday Real Estate was the 12th-largest brokerage in the U.S. in 2014 by transaction sides.
Ebby Halliday Acers, founder of one of the nation’s largest brokerages, Dallas-based Ebby Halliday Real Estate, died overnight of natural causes. She was 104 years old.
Acers, who went by “Ebby Halliday” professionally, founded her eponymous firm in 1945. In 2014, the 1,700-agent firm represented buyers and sellers on 19,189 transaction sides, the 12th most in the nation, according to Real Trends.
Born Vera Lucille Koch in Leslie, Arkansas, Halliday moved to Dallas in 1938 as a hat seller, but she soon began selling houses at the behest of a Texas oilman.
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Ebby Halliday
“Each of us who had the good fortune of knowing Ebby has been touched by the grace, fortitude and compassion with which she lived her life,” said Ebby Halliday Real Estate President and CEO Mary Burleson in a statement. “Ebby had a very simple saying that she lived by: ‘Do something for someone every day.’”
Halliday was revered in the industry.
“Ebby was truly an inspirational leader for all of us,” said Steve Habgood, president of MetroTex Association of Realtors, which serves the Dallas area. “Not only was she a great entrepreneur and a trail blazer for women in the industry, but she was also a compassionate and giving soul who left an indelible mark on the city.”
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Ebby’s Place at the YW, The Ebby House at Juliette Fowler Communities, Happy Hill Farm and Academy or the charity of your choice.