Debbie and Nickey Oates had just returned from a couple of weeks in Italy to host Baylor Scott and White Dallas Foundation’s (BSWDF) 2024 Celebrating Women patron party on Wednesday, October 16. The night could not have been more perfect at the Oates estate as the mallard ducks settled along the pond just a few feet away from the pond’s centerpiece fountain as The Super Moon (aka The Hunter Moon) looked like it had been plucked from Central Casting.
The day’s first season’s chill resulted in all the home’s doors being wide open. No need for air conditioning to be cranked up, nor for coats to be handed over at the entrance.
Nickey talked with BSWDF Board Member Jay Rosser, learning that Jay would be winding down his leading the T. Boone Pickens estate come the end of the year. Jay has already been planting seeds in a partnership for Montfort.
Across the hallway, Pam Perella, fresh from the 2025 Sweetheart Ball tea, was canoodling with Claire Emanuelson about the pros of having a generator that had saved days of food lost and helped neighbors salvage their medications.
While guests dove into the dining room table feast of mini tacos, bigger-than-life shrimp and veggies, back in the kitchen Chef Bobby Pollette revealed that he had just closed on purchasing Cassandra‘s former kitchen. This development will allow him to not only oversee Preston Center East’s A·T Bistro, short for Au Troisieme, but to cater area gatherings like this one.
It was midway into the evening that Debbie thanked all, including Jill Smith, Angie Kadesky, Shirley and Bill Cohn, Gail Davis, Trish Halligan and Christie Carter, for coming, and admitted that she was grateful to be part of the 25th anniversary group of Celebrating Women. Over to the side, Elizabeth Gunby admitted that she still missed the Foundation fundraiser’s founder, the late Lindalyn Adams, who passed away in 2021.
Thanks to Lindalyn, more than $42M has funded the program.
In that regard, BSWD Foundation Vice President of Development Christina Goodman reported on new early detection programs involving Dr. Joyce O’Shaughnessy and Dr. Ronan Kelly.
BSWDF President Ben Renberg pointed out that 2024 Celebrating Women Presiding Honorary Chair Linda Custard, more that 20 past chairs and 20 years of support by Tom Thumb Albertson’s had supported countless women and men battling breast cancer. In less than two days, the luncheon would take place at the Hilton Anatole with actress/breast cancer survivor Olivia Munn as the keynote speaker.