Judy Pittman, R.I.P.

We received word that yet another grand dame of Dallas Real estate has left us, the beautiful Judy Goff Pittman, who died July 9.

She was preceded in death by her husband, William Thomas (Bill) Pittman’s passing in August of 2020. The couple lived in a two-story penthouse at The Warrington that once belonged to Dallas Mayor Erik Jonsson, but she had been staying in a smaller unit she and Bill also owned on the Warrington’s second floor.

Pittman’s signature brand was her magnificent car collection: Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes, and Range Rover, to mention a few. And she was best known for pioneering Dallas high-rise living along Turtle Creek Boulevard far before the explosion of luxury condominiums in Uptown and the Dallas Arts District. Selling condos was her specialty niche in Dallas real estate, and she traded hundreds of units for millions in commission sales, and for years she was the top producing real estate broker in Dallas.

The Queen of Turtle Creek Real Estate

Judy was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, but moved to Texas shortly after and was raised in Preston Hollow, the youngest of four children. Her father, Bobby Goff, was a former general manager of the Dallas Eagles minor league baseball team.

Educated as a teacher, Judy first partnered with Berta Patterson in Preston Royal to supplement her teacher’s income. In her first year in full-time real estate, she earned $19,000. She was the youngest female real estate broker to be in business for herself at the time and sold homes in the Park Cities and Preston Hollow. In an early, short marriage Judy actually lived on Edlen Road in Old Preston Hollow.

A devout Catholic, the marriage was annulled and she took a trip to the Holy Land in about 1978 to focus on her life. When she returned from that trip, she went to mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church and introduced herself to Bill Pittman, the parish’s newest priest. The two became dear friends. Years later, Father Pittman said that happiness is being married to your best friend.

“We had the Walt Disney version of The Thorn Birds,” she once told me. Bill got blessings from the church AND her mother before proposing, and the two were married in the Catholic Church.

The couple moved to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where Bill was to teach in a college. Judy, always an entrepreneur, convinced the Hallmark Company to let her open a store to sell cards and trinkets, which she bought in Dallas at market. The Gulf Coast town of 5,000 did not have the plush economic base of Preston Hollow, but she did so well that Hallmark actually had her open two more stores. The couple sold those and returned to Dallas when Judy’s mother, and later real estate partner, became ill.

They snagged a condo at the Warrington. Though it wasn’t popular in Dallas at the time — in fact, in the late 1980s you couldn’t give Dallas condos away — Judy loved the condo lifestyle and wanted to sell it. As she told Cheryl Hall in a 2000 Dallas Morning News interview: “Dallas doesn’t have mountains or an ocean, but it has a magnificent skyline. It’s like a jewel box that twinkles at night. We have wonderful sunrises and sunsets. You watch the city wake up and go to sleep. You see the storms roll in and feel the power. The sense of sky is magical. It creates so much excitement and makes you feel alive.”

Fond Memories of a Legend

“I first met Judy in the 1980s when she was representing the Australian investor who had bought out a good portion on the developer-owned units at a Turtle Creek condo,” recalls Allie Beth Allman’s executive vice president Kyle Crews, President of ABA URBAN, and himself a high-rise trailblazer. “She brought to that building her charismatic energy and amazing sales skills that had the building sold out sooner than the investor expected. He was so pleased that he bought Judy her first Rolls Royce as a surprise thank you!”

That building was The Claridge, an 18-story condo building that was still 75 percent empty five years after its completion — almost a decade after pre-construction sales. Judy had a handshake deal to sell a $35 million project — sink or swim. On Aug. 30, 1993, she sold the last unit in The Claridge. In three years, Judy sold the building out.

“Judy went on to sell out The Mansion Residences and later The Vendome – which she helped design. She did much to establish high-rise condominiums as a viable lifestyle in Dallas. As a competitor, Judy set a high standard of market knowledge and ‘hutzpah,'” Crews continued. “She was always on her game. I was fortunate to have known her on a professional level and as a friend. Judy Pittman was quite a lady — and she will be missed.”

Few will miss her more than our Jon Anderson, who spent a lot of time with Judy over their mutual love of condo life and Turtle Creek living. Jon called Judy “the Mayoress” of Turtle Creek.

You can have your red carpets, reality TV, and celebutantes; I prefer substance. For a high-rise fanboy like me, it was a treat last week to spend an afternoon with Dallas high-rise royalty. Judy Pittman is often mentioned in the same breath as Ebby Halliday, Allie Beth Allman, Virginia Cook, and other feisty ladies who have taken Dallas real estate by storm over the decades.

A pearl of wisdom in real estate is to specialize and be known for something. Pittman has strung her pearls up and down Turtle Creek, but she didn’t start out in high-rises.

Early in Pittman’s real estate career, she and partner Berta Patterson were selling homes in Highland Park and Preston Hollow. This was back when Preston Hollow was just a nice neighborhood, before it became today’s “Park Cities North.” From 1980 to 1986 she took a hiatus from real estate and moved to Mississippi with her husband, who had taken a position at St. Stanislaus College. Not being a sit and knit type, Pittman opened three Hallmark shops in Mississippi before selling up and returning to Dallas for good.

She resettled at The Warrington, where she still lives today. It was here that the high-rise bug bit her.  Of course she long ago traded in her one-bedroom to eventually wind up in a penthouse suitable for a Turtle Creek Mayoress (after all, it’s the former home of former Dallas mayor Erik Jonsson).

Judy not only sold real estate, but she also owned it: she flipped houses while still teaching, bought and sold condos on Turtle Creek (“I practice what I preach,” she said), bought a flat in London (sold it years ago), two homes in New York City, and a house in South Hampton. Crews remembers getting a call from Judy when he and his wife were in Long Island, inviting them to their Hamptons home.

“She took us all over, showed us Gerald Ford’s place, everything,” says Crews. “She was a trove of information on that community and could quote who owned every home, who had sold it, and for how much.”

I spent a delightful evening with Bill and Judy several years ago, at their fabulous Warrington penthouse. About this time the Ritz was being developed, Museum Tower was a gleam in Scott Johnson’s eyes, and Craig Hall may have thought building an Arts District condominium was the last thing he would ever do. We talked about the slow Dallas progression to high-rise living: Turtle Creek, Judy explained, had always been a bit of a final landing pad for moneyed Dallas once the kids were grown, the big houses shed. It was also where you found wealthy divorcees, widows, and several well-kept mistresses such as Dorothy Heyser, the paramour of the late senator John Tower of Texas: the senator and Ms. Heyser both lived in Turtle Creek condos.

As did T. Boone Pickens, Greer Garson, as well as Ted and Annette Strauss, all of whom, of course, were Judy’s clients.

My interview was years ago, but I distinctly recall Judy telling me that when she focused on one niche area — condo sales — it was very lonely but she believed that it was the future.

Camille Fournier, Judy’s niece and godchild, is the broker of record now for Judy Pittman, Inc. which will continue the real estate sales legacy of the Queen of the Dallas Skyline, Judy Goff Pittman.

Funeral services are scheduled for Wednesday, July 21, at 2 p.m. at Holy Trinity Catholic Church.