Way west of Fort Worth, blonde-headed Allie Beth Allman was up against the odds.
She came from modest means. Her father sold cars before the Great Depression, but automobiles weren’t rolling off the lines after the Great Crash. He started selling furniture instead.
She struggled. She was severely dyslexic. It was so severe that she’d spend most days after school with a tutor in the bad part of tiny Graham, Texas fighting words and letters.
But nobody worked harder than her. The woman who would become Queen of Highland Park cut a path that women in North Texas real estate tread up to this day, and her client list spans the gamut of athletes and former world leaders.
D-FW Real Estate News
She forged ahead in the property world at a time when men dominated the industry, and she’s not stopping.
“I don’t know the word retire,” she said.
Allman’s path to real estate wasn’t always obvious.
She grew up as one of three McMurtry sisters just outside of Graham. Allman was active in the Methodist church, and her parents instilled the importance of education into their girls.
When she was eight, her father took her to Jane Galloway, a tutor who helped area children with their reading skills.
“I went to her every day after that,” Allman said. “The best part is that I learned to work hard.”
‘Charm and accent’
At the insistence of her parents, Allman and her sisters attended college. She selected Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
School was still a struggle for her, but Allman didn’t let it stop her. She knew how to get on the good side of tastemakers and professors. She charmed her way to TCU sweetheart and out of some classrooms.
“One professor told me ‘Allie Beth, your charm is your accent. You just don’t need to come back,’” she said.
She graduated from the Fort Worth university with a degree in communications, and took a job as a typist at WFAA before she caught the eye of Pierce Allman. The SMU graduate would later gain national prominence for his on-scene reporting following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
“I had to work late because I couldn’t type,” she said. “So, one night the phone rang and Pierce was on the other line. He asked if I wanted to see [the summer musical],” he said.
It was the start of a love story.
The couple dated for about a year before tying the knot in 1963. Station rules forbade married couples from working together, so Allman left the media industry.
She quit working for a while until someone else spotted her talent — legendary Dallas Cowboys head coach Tom Landry. Allman became close friend of Landry’s wife, Alicia Wiggs. The pair were sorority sisters, and they’d met at a Tri Delta alumnae event, not long after the Landrys moved to Dallas.
The Landrys were looking to sell their home, and they looked to Allman. She didn’t have a license then but it didn’t matter. She sold the Landry home in 1981.
“He always said after that that he was a good judge of talent,” he said.
She started working in real estate not long after. By 1985, she decided to start her own company.
Allie Beth Allman Real Estate was born.
Ebby Halliday had established herself as the “First Lady of Real Estate” by that point. She was among the first women to enter the profession and certainly the most notable.
The brokerage that bore Halliday’s name was already four decades old by that point. It would become the largest independently owned residential real estate company in the state.
“She was very nice to me. Even though she had her own company, she didn’t deal in the high-end homes,” Allman said. “Her nephew actually wanted to get in real estate. She told him he had to come and be with me.”
The two would have similar career trajectories, but Allman cut her own path.
In 1995, she sold her company to well-known Dallas developer Henry S. Miller. She aimed to step away, but she didn’t stay gone for long.
Miller’s company merged with Coldwell Banker in 2001. By 2003, Allman decided to reopen an independent company, Allie Beth Allman & Associates — with Miller’s blessing.
Her client list is a who’s who in the world of sports, politics and more — former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, former Texas Rangers player Alex Rodriguez, Ross Perot Jr., as well as a bevy of Dallas Cowboys like quarterback (and her close friend) Troy Aikman and owner Jerry Jones.
She may well be the only person who’s sold a home to a former U.S. president and vice president.
Allman helped Dick Cheney buy a home in Highland Park when he was CEO of oil field service company Halliburton. She then helped Cheney sell the same house just before he became George W. Bush’s running mate in the 2000 election.
Allman helped the nation avoid a potential 12th Amendment constitutional hurdle as both men called Texas home at the time.
“The Bushes were calling me on their way to Crawford [Ranch] telling me [to] find a buyer,” she said. “[Lynn Cheney] wanted $100,000 more. I had to go back, and the buyer made it for that much more money.”
In 2008, Allman helped the Bushes secure their Preston Hollow estate. She delivered the keys to the couple at the White House.
Allman’s firm became the first single-office residential firm to achieve $1 billion in sales in 2012. She sold her business again in 2015. This time to Warren Buffett’s HomeServices of America Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate.
She’s remained with the business. The firm had over $2 billion in sales in 2018 and hit a record of more than $4 billion in 2025.
Allman was at the center of the two largest single residential transactions in North Texas history to date — the sales of the Hicks/Crespi Estate and the Trammell Crow estate. Dallas financier Andy Beal bought them both.
While North Texas evolves around her, Allman’s primary selling grounds of the Park Cities hasn’t changed much. Her luxury condo right on the edge of Highland Park offers views of the downtown skyline and the cranes of Uptown.
Planes from nearby Love Field fly over her rooftop patio. Allman, clad in a hot pink pantsuit, walks to her small outdoor pond to feed her Koi fish as she remembers the people behind the properties.
It’s about more than the deal for Allman. She remains a part of her clients’ lives. They often become friends. Allman had lunch with Laura Bush at the Dallas Country Club in recent weeks.
She calls Aikman’s daughters “her little girls” and reminisces about the adventures they’ve gone on.
“They mean a whole lot more than the money,” Allman said.