Virginia Cook, R.I.P.

I had the honor and pleasure of getting to know Virginia Cook — co-founder of Virginia Cook Realtors, who died July 13 at the age of 84 — on one of the greatest excursions of my life: an overnight trip to Costa Rica on a private jet to check out an enclave under development by Ross Perot’s Fort-Worth-based Hillwood.

We were visiting 13 prime, half-acre, beachfront lots in the uber-exclusive enclave of Peninsula Papagayo, in a tropical forest on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

Along for the ride, besides Virginia and my one-woman press corps, was Dave Perry-Miller, Ellen Terry, and a few other select primos of Dallas tip-top selling agents. These were the folks who would have clients we would pass in the skies as we took off in Hillwood’s $45 million G450, the Bentley of air limos. We got to Love Field at 9 a.m. and landed at what was then the small Liberia (Costa Rica) International Airport, cooled by enormous ceiling fans.

I think it was Virginia who told me the extra-long runway was built by Oliver North during the Iran-Contra affair. Now jet-setters landed there. And so my real estate head started spinning like a Twitter (now X) feed. I could not absorb information quickly enough from these giants of the business and from the folks at Hillwood as they showed us their island jewels. Peninsula Papagayo was in all its soon-to-be vacation-home-for-the-uber-wealthy glory: a communications center, a security backbone rivaling the Pentagon of 250 hidden cameras, a fiber-optics network, and even a firefighting department that trained at Texas A&M University.

I actually thought of that fire department last year when Maui burned. We took a hard-hat tour of the 38,000-square-foot Playa Prieta Beach Club, with spa and exercise rooms, plus open-air massage rooms and rainfall showers. Somewhere, I have a photo of Virginia in her hard hat. We toured the condos that had been built to show, then took off our shoes and got sandy feet on the (then) $2 million an acre lots.

Virginia told me to buy one; it would be a great investment.

But it was at a long lunch that day that I parked myself beside Virginia and fell in love with her. She told me how she started in the business — as Henry S. Miller’s secretary. He was busy with all the men coming to town, showing them commercial space for their businesses. “Why don’t you take their wives out and show them some homes?” Miller asked her.

She was one of the strong women of her day who started as a secretary and ended up a CEO.

Co-Founder of Virginia Cook Realtors

Virginia Cook was a real estate legend in Dallas, one of the top five who made Dallas real estate what it is today. She is right up there with Ebby Halliday, Ellen Terry, Allie Beth Allman, and Paula Stringer. I’d like to add Jenny Ling, Doris Jacobs, Erin Mathews, and a few others to that group, too.

Virginia was born in Corpus Christi but grew up in Dallas and attended Southern Methodist University.

Sixty years ago she earned a real estate license and began her career with Judge Fite. In 1970, she bought the Paula Stringer office at 5950 Forest Lane, built up a real estate company with Sheila Rice, and then sold it to her former employer. She remained with Henry S. Miller Residential, growing the company to 30 offices with more than 1,000 agents. She was active in nearly every real-estate connected organization. She was the first woman to serve as President of the Greater Dallas Board of Realtors (now MetroTex Association of Realtors). She was the first female president of the Texas Association of Realtors. She was asked to run, but declined, for the presidency of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). She was involved in many city organizations. I recall her lovely invitation to The Alexander Mansion. She was president of the Dallas Women’s Forum from 2012 to 2014.

Virginia was a tiny gal, about 5 foot 2 inches tall, but she always wore heels and was polished to the nines. In 1999 she launched her own firm with Sheila Rice. The offices grew to six across North Texas — in North Dallas, Uptown, the Park Cities, Sherman, Fort Worth, and Plano. In 2019, we were saddened to report that Virginia Cook Realtors closed their doors for good. At the time, it was one of the largest independent real estate sales firms in Texas.

The firm closed because, in 2015, Virginia had a stroke that resulted in paralysis of her right side. She had great difficulty speaking. After her stroke, she took time off and spent two years in physical rehab. Like most Realtors, Virginia loved to lunch In her later years and was spotted frequently at Cafe Pacific and Al Biernet’s. I almost always saw her at the late Highland Park Starbucks in her wheelchair with her caretaker. She recognized me and everyone, and I could tell from her bright, sparkling eyes that she and her spirit were very much alive and thinking behind her handicap. Apparently, with her incredible, super-sales star and leader willpower, she learned to write with her left hand and to use an iPad when she was about 80. Incredible.

There are about 50 people I could call for wonderful stories about Virginia Cook. Please feel free to share them here freely. And may the beautiful soul of Virgina Cook rest in peace.

Services for Virginia Cook will be Monday, July 29 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Highland Park Presbyterian Church.