Rest in Peace: ‘Designing Texas’ Host Jocelyn White

This is a tough one to write. I knew legendary Dallas-Fort Worth broadcaster Jocelyn White pretty well. Like so many in Dallas, she touched my life with her sparkling, embracing, warm-as-hot-caramel personality and beauty.

My first job in Dallas was as a writer/producer at KDFW-TV. Clarice Tinsley had just moved to what was then Channel 4, a short time before I got settled in from New York City. (I was such a snob when I first moved to Dallas, mostly because I have always lived in large cities and was seeking that urban “downtown” feel we are finally now achieving.)

In came this beautiful — and yes, buxom — brunette from Little Rock, Arkansas, where she had been doing the weather. She was to replace Gary … what was his last name? He was a pudgy guy from Indianapolis always commenting on my rear end. You can imagine what they said about Jocelyn. But she was the sharpest gal in the newsroom, one of five women in the country at that time to earn the American Meteorological Society’s Seal of Approval.

Ah, those days. I was young and green, fresh from grad school, whereas Jocelyn had worked at several stations. She took me under her wing until she left the station, which was about three years after she started. In those days — maybe still today — broadcast stations would change their minds about talent over cocktails the night before. Life was all about ratings. And the men were sexist pigs we ladies laughed about over too many cocktails.

We stayed in touch, acquaintances who had worked together, as our lives went on: mine to having and raising babies, Jocie’s to hanging with the trendsetters of Dallas, working at KVIL with Ron Chapman and Jody Dean, then KISS FM with the late Kidd Kraddick, then a newby to broadcasting.

Jocelyn was a beautiful woman who had a rare knack for survival in the media world.

Jocelyn knew how to brand herself. She partnered in a restaurant, was involved in many, many charitable causes, a stint with D Magazine when I was there called D TV (didn’t last long), and then finally her beautiful TV shows Designing Texas, Designing Texas Catalog, Designing DFW, Jocelyn’s Weekend, Texas Country Nights, HotOn!Homes, and Designing America for Mark Cuban’s HDNet. Funny how we both ended up in real estate journalism from those humble newsroom beginnings.

The last I spent a long time with her was a couple years ago, when she wanted me to hear out a Frisco builder who she felt had been wronged. She believed in this guy so much, she wanted me to investigate and then write up his story. It was a bizarre case, looked like a Ponzi scheme at first glance but Jocelyn said no, this guy has been set up. “You gotta help me with this,” she said. “You gotta help him.”

Of course I took a look, because when Jocelyn White fights hard for someone there is usually a reason why. And she fought so hard for so many philanthropies.

My daughter, who adored Jocelyn, wrote this: “As chairman of the board of directors for the SPCA of Texas from 2013-2015 during part of my tenure on the board, she demonstrated to me how to work hard, work smart, & lead a non-profit with passion, grace, & grit. Jocelyn was never worried about getting her hands dirty – she would jump right in and do the dirty work, then get into a sparkling cocktail dress to raise funds to ensure more dirty work could be done. As an Equest board member and volunteer, she inspired me to arrange for the therapy ponies to visit the low-income nursing home I was volunteering at through the Junior League of Dallas.”

She was a fighter, which you have to be to survive — hell, even to breathe — in the Dallas media jungle. Unlike other media veterans who have taken a bitter turn, Joce stayed bright, beautiful, and positive even as we all got older.

I knew Jocelyn’s health had been fragile for years, and apparently, she was diagnosed with a rare lung disease this past February just as the Covid vaccines were gearing up. In 2012, she married Kim Seal, a Dallas title company executive and they didn’t live far from me. We’d sometimes run into each other at the store. Jocelyn was truly as beautiful and caring on the inside as her gorgeous exterior. And she had great taste.

I’m sorry she is gone. She left us too soon.

Rest in peace, dear friend.

This story has been updated to include a quote by Cassie Evans