Ebby Halliday Acers, founder of one of the largest residential real estate companies, passed away overnight of natural causes at 104 years old.
According to the company’s blog, Ebby founded Ebby Halliday Realtors in 1945, which is based in Dallas. The company has grown to become the largest independently owned residential real estate services company in Texas and ranks 10th in the nation, with 1,700 sales associates.
“While we grieve the loss of Ebby, our legendary founder and my friend and mentor for over 50 years, we celebrate a long life well lived,” said Mary Frances Burleson, president and CEO of The Ebby Halliday Companies.
“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. Ebby had a very simple saying that she lived by, ‘Do something for someone every day.’ That small bit of wisdom served Ebby very, very well,” continued Burleson.
The blogged explained that she was born Vera Lucille Koch in the small town of Leslie, Ark., on March 9, 1911, showing entrepreneurial and business skills early on.
When she was 8, Halliday would ride her pony from wheat farm to wheat farm selling Cloverine salve, which she marketed as good for bug bites, cuts and bruises.
Her journey with Ebby Halliday Realtors began after a husband of one of the customers at a department store she was working at asked her to help sell 50 single-family spec houses made of insulated concrete that he built. She sold them all, paving the way for her career in real estate.
Halliday dedicated a lot of her time to her community as a volunteer, including serving as the president of the Thanksgiving Square Foundation and on the boards of the St. Paul Medical Foundation, the Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas County Community College District Foundation and the Better Business Bureau.
She was also very distinguished in her profession, holding many honors like the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Realtors and the International Real Estate Federation, along with being inductedinto the Texas Business Hall of Fame, the Dallas Business Hall of Fame and so many other honors.
Soon after the news spread, tributes began to circulate on Twitter.
Cherished Dallas real estate icon, entrepreneur and business leader Ebby Halliday dies at 104. RIP. http://t.co/eX9Td0f6wq
— Stuart Lodge (@stuartlodge) September 9, 2015
North Dallas Homes Ebby Halliday lives on: Dallas lost a legend last night with the passing of Ebby Halliday. … http://t.co/H6TUganHUc
— Dallas Realtor (@LydiaPlayer) September 9, 2015
Our hearts are sad in the Dallas West End, as Dallas Icon and Real Estate legend Ebby Haliday has passed away at… http://t.co/qszwPlmGIs
— Dallas West End (@DallasWestEnd) September 9, 2015
Ebby Halliday, wrote the book on women entrepreneurism, and Dallas real estate's beloved icon, died at 104 | @DMNbiz http://t.co/GumNwm7eCf
— SparkFarm (@SparkFarm) September 9, 2015
