While the announcement of the Crystal Charity Ball‘s Ten Best Dressed is a longtime favorite to find out who will be honored at the luncheon fashion show in the fall, it’s also important to keep the facts straight — especially this year, when it’s celebrating its 50th anniversary. But more about that later.
As guests arrived at Neiman Marcus NorthPark’s third floor for the 2024 Crystal Charity Ball Ten Best Dressed Fashion Show reveal of the ladies on the evening of Wednesday, April 11, nine of the honorees plus the Hall of Famer were sequestered in the dressing rooms behind the scenes.
But oldtimers already knew that seven of the ladies would be returnees from the previous year, and the guessing game was on about who the three newbies and HoF would be. While some pondered the answer, others were discussing the topic of the day, “Where were you for the eclipse?” Almost to a man/woman all admitted they hadn’t been too excited about the total solar eclipse that had taken place just the Monday before. However, when the eclipse commenced, all agreed that it was a big deal and were amazed at the sounds of cheers throughout North Texas as the totality got underway.
Hunt Biggers‘ family had friends over for the occasion, while his father-in-law Clay Cooley laughed, saying they went out to the dealership’s lot, looked up and headed back to work.
Richard Dix was just back from a day of visiting construction sites in Cleburne and Hadley. Speaking of construction, he was very impressed with the Hadley football stadium complete with skyboxes.
Just before NM VP Scott Mitchell got the program underway, the tenth BD-er arrived and was whisked backstage to join the others. Following Scott’s welcome, 2024 CCB Chair Cheryl Joyner introduced the night’s sponsor IBC Bank‘s VP Joe Garrison.
Without notes, 2024 Fashion Show Chair Kim Hext described the history of the luncheon and said the fundraiser with Oscar de la Renta fashions on the runway would take place on Thursday, September 12.
Then the presentation of the 10 BD-ers was made including returnees (Monica Eastin, Meredith Land, Anne McPherson, Wendy Messmann, Kim Quinn, Lisa Rocchio and Sunie Solomon), first timers (Tracey Kozmetsky, Tracy Lange and Katherine Wyker) and Hall of Famer (Lisa Cooley).
After a series of group photos of the class of 2024 were taken, the ladies were surrounded by families and friends.
As for the late comer, Meredith got the “scamper rabbit award.” Despite finishing her KXAS anchor duties in Fort Worth, she once again hopped to it in record time to NorthPark, with just minutes to spare and not a hair out of place..
And as for keeping the records straight, Kim’s remarkably gracious presentation at the podium was just a wee bit off on three points:
- This year’s fashion show is taking place at NM Downtown, not ” the iconic NorthPark Downtown.”
- The Society Section publisher was the late Janet DeSanders, not “Linda,” who started the first CCB Fashion Show. In addition to being TSS publisher and society editor of The Dallas Times Herald, Janet was a member of CCB.
- The first fashion show was presented by the late Albert Lidji and Lou Lattimore … not “Lou Lou Lattimore.”
A touching bit of trivia: Of the first group of 10 BD-ers (Joanne Stroud Bilby, Carla Francis, Norma Hunt, Betty Meadows, Lupe Murchison, Mary Jo Vaughn Rauscher, Sharon Simons, Annette Strauss, Patti Williams [Hunt] and Jacque Wynne), only Sharon and Jacque are still alive 50 years later.
For more looks of the evening of announcements, check out MySweetCharity Photo Gallery.