Linda Pitts Custard, Dallas’ beloved patron of the performing arts, museums, education and medical research, died Thursday night at Baylor Scott & White Hospital. She was 86.
Marla Custard said her mother died from a highly virulent resurgence of metastatic breast cancer that she’d staved off 10 years ago.
“It went very bad very fast, more than we could comprehend,” Marla Custard said. “We were hopeful that she would have another reprieve. Honestly, we were so caught off guard.
“My mother was a real advocate for early detection of all kinds of cancer and a huge supporter of cancer research. She was a hardcore, energetic advocate of Susan G. Komen and research at Baylor Scott & White and UT Southwestern. She felt it gave her life purpose.”
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Allen Custard, the oldest of three children, said his mother was a consummate optimist.
“She was very busy early on with Junior League and Salvation Army. She was a Republican precinct chairman in her 20s. She inspired me.”
Linda is also survived by her younger daughter, Laura, and Laura’s husband, Richard Burcham, and five grandchildren.
Linda Custard was a co-recipient of the 2025 Linz Award, one of Dallas’ most prestigious civic honors, along with Bess Enloe, her longtime civic compatriot.
The award is given annually by The Dallas Morning News and is also presented by the Communities Foundation of Texas and The Dallas Foundation. The Custard-Enloe dynamic duo was recognized for a breadth of the two women’s contributions to making Dallas a better, more humane place to live.
Bess Enloe (left) and Linda Custard shared the 2025 Linz Award for their decades of service and support of Dallas-Fort Worth’s arts and culture scene.
Kim Leeson / Kim Leeson
“Linda was the ideal person to win the Linz Award because her commitment to Dallas, volunteering and philanthropic generosity was truly unique,” said Grant Moise, publisher and president of The Dallas Morning News. “Linda more than met the bar of being a civic hero, and I am so happy we were able to recognize her last year.”
Robert W. Decherd, former CEO of DallasNews Corporation and a longtime Dallas civic leader, called her “a quiet force for good in Dallas for more than a half century, selflessly advancing the arts, education and community.”
Bess Enloe said she was devastated by the news.
“Linda looked fabulous at the Linz Award,” she said. “I saw her at a party in December, and she never looked more beautiful. Today came as such a shock.
“Linda had a brilliant mind and was strategic in what she felt was important, which was education, arts and Dallas, Texas, and put her money behind it. Her judgment was spot on with everything she got involved with.”
Enloe said Linda Custard “felt that big ideas come and go, but believed that the great successful ideas were ones that the details were taken care of. It’s really true.”
R. Gerald Turner, president emeritus of Southern Methodist University, said Linda Custard was a core supporter and developer of the university. “You knew that whatever Linda was overseeing was going to be high quality, particularly true about the Meadows Museum. That was not only important to SMU but, in many ways, to Dallas, too. She was a great spirit to have around.”
In 2001, when the Meadows Museum was completed, she chaired the museum’s opening ceremony, which also received a visit from Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. Years later, she helped land an educational agreement between the Dallas museum and the Prado.
Linda Custard in 2002 at the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University.
Nan Coulter / 172939
Turner said her partnership with the Meadows Foundation and fundraising efforts vastly increased the stature of the museum and its collections: “She was an amazing detail person, never letting anything slip.”
In 2009, H. Ross Perot Sr., who loved practical jokes, had a five-man crew sneak into the backyards of some of Dallas’ most prominent women and assemble 12-foot, full-bodied, naked-lady fake topiaries that he’d discovered abandoned in a warehouse.
And, by the way, they stood on pedestals.
Linda Custard posed at her Dallas home in 2019 with her faux topiary, a whimsical gift from H. Ross Perot Sr.
Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer
“With teenage grandsons, it’s gotten so many titters,” Linda Custard said of the topiary in her backyard after Perot’s death in 2019.
Linda Custard moved from Chicago to Dallas when she was 9. She earned her undergraduate degree in speech and drama from Mills College in 1960.
She embarked on a new journey when she found herself an empty nester and entered the Cox School of Business at SMU, graduating in 1999.
“I greatly admired her when she went back for an MBA with all those 28-year-olds,” Turner said.
“It was remarkable,” said Marla Custard. “She felt very strongly about getting it and had no qualms about doing the work to do it.”
Allen Custard was at Harvard University, so he and his mother were in college at the same time.
Linda Custard (left) at a Dallas event in 1986 with Jeremy Halbreich and Nancy Halbreich.
Joe Laird – staff photographer
Their mom’s resume was jam-packed.
She helped to shape the creation of the Dallas Arts District, even before there was such a district.
“Linda had deep, first-hand knowledge about the history of our cultural community and the creation of the Dallas Arts District,” said Warren Tranquada, CEO of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. “Her stories were spellbinding. I saw that firsthand shortly after arriving in Dallas [in 2022]. Linda invited me to lunch, and she welcomed me with kindness, generosity.
“Linda turned her love of the arts into a lifelong leadership role that unquestionably moved the needle in our Arts District and in Dallas. We have truly lost a champion, but our community has been blessed to have had her.”
“Linda’s impact on the Dallas Theater Center is immeasurable,” said Kevin Moriarty, executive director of the DCT. “From the opening night at the Kalita Humphreys Theater in 1959 — which she and Bill Custard attended a few months before they were married — Linda was woven into the fabric of the life of our theater.”
Linda Custard died less than a year after the death of Bill Custard, her soul mate and husband of nearly 65 years. He died on her 86th birthday.
“It’s the most amazing, loving story,” Marla Custard said. “It had been 10 months of real, real hardship in Dad’s health. For days, he kept asking when Mom’s birthday was. We told him Tuesday, which happened to be Mardis Gras Day, Fat Tuesday.”
Bill Custard and Linda Custard in 2007 attending an event at Neiman Marcus downtown for “A Celebration of a Century.”
NAN COULTER / 123904
The whole family went to dinner at Brook Hollow Golf Club to celebrate Linda’s birthday, she said. “They had a jazz band, and it was just fun. We had family photos taken and had a lot of laughter.
“Mom and Dad held hands on the way home. When they got home, Dad sat down on the couch and expired right there,” Marla Custard said. “He was just so determined to stay and celebrate Mom one last time. It was a testament to how much he loved her and she loved him.
“We’re a wreck and heartbroken, but so grateful that she went so quickly and without pain. Thanks to the powers that be for that.”
Linda Custard is survived by her son, W. Allen Custard III, and his wife, Mason; daughter Marla Custard; daughter Laura Custard Hurt and her husband, Richard Burcham; and five grandchildren: Isabella, William IV, Franklin Custard, George IV and Henry Hurt, all of Dallas.
Services are pending.