By Tuesday, May 10, tornado warnings seemed to have become routine. Still, with clouds looking like street gangs ready to rumble, locals were still heeding the words of weather guessers that North Texas should be prepared for another round of flooding, hail, wind and locusts. Okay, so maybe not the locusts, but everything else.
John and Mary Martha Pickens, Christie Carter and Hudson Weischel
Luckily for the annual Crystal Charity Ball Former Chairmen dinner, 2016 CCB Chair Christie Carter and her team had picked the perfect spot for the seated supper underwritten by Bank of America, U. S. Trust Private Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch: Joyce and Larry Lacerte’s estate.
When one guest inquired about possible tornadoes, hostess Joyce promptly replied, “We have a full basement and can just move the party downstairs.”
Karen Shuford
Randi Halsell
Jill Smith, Gloria Martindale and Vicki Chapman
In addition to having the most palatial “storm shelter” in these surroundings, if guests like Barbara Varel (1970), Joyce Mitchell (1988), Sally Berry (1990), Sara Martineau (1993), Barbara Stuart (1994), Randi Halsell (1996), Tincy Miller (1997), Becky Bright (1999), Karen Shuford (2000), Nancy Chapman (2001), Lydia Novakov (2002), Margo Goodwin (2004), Jill Smith (2005), Debbie Snell (2006), Vicki Chapman (2007), Gloria Martindale (2008), Debbie Oates (2009), Cynthia Mitchell (2010), Aileen Pratt (2012), Robyn Conlon (2014), Caren Kline (2013) and Michal Powell (2015) and and their husbands/dates were forced to hunker downstairs, Cassandra Fine Catering team plus Lacerte house manager Roxann Vyazmensky could easily have moved the feast from the elegant tables set up in the Lacerte’s great room on the ground level downstairs. Talk about glorious MREs — baby greens salad, pan seared beef tenderloin with lobster risotto and orange custard for dessert.
From the left: (front row) Barbara Varel, Gloria Martindale, Aileen Pratt, Nancy Chapman, Cynthia Mitchell, Barbara Stuart, Karen Shuford and Tincy Miller; (back row) Margo Goodwin, Robyn Conlon, Debbie Oates, Randi Halsell, Joyce Mitchell, Lydia Novakov, Michal Powell, Debbie Snell, Jill Smith, Sally Berry, Becky Bright, Caren Kline, Vicki Chapman and Sara Martineau
2016 Former Crystal Charity Ball Dinner table setting
Kathy and Richard Holt
But luckily the need to “seek shelter” didn’t take place and all went according to plan with Bank of America Dallas Market President Richard Holt and his blonde wife Kathy Holt greeting the 22 former chairs, who have helped lead the 64-year-old organization to provide more than $123M for Dallas area children’s charities.
