Linda Pitts Custard

Linda was born March 4, 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio, the eldest child of Mary Martha McCann Pitts and Lloyd Franklin Pitts. Her early years were lived in bustling downtown Chicago, in a high-rise apartment on Lakeshore Drive, attending the Girls Latin School of Chicago with weekends on their farm in Brookville, Illinois. When she was eight years old her parents made the auspicious move to Dallas as her father was seeking the adventurous life of oil exploration. They made the southward journey by automobile, without air conditioning, arriving on the hottest day of the year in August 1948. They made their residence at the Adolphus Hotel.

Linda loved to say she wasn’t born in Texas, but she got here as soon as she could. The family homestead was on DeLoache Avenue, open grassland at that time. Her parents lived there for the next 60 years, watching saplings grow to towering trees, as the city grew out to meet them. As a teenager Linda had a pet duck named “Boo” whom she walked through the neighborhood and local parades in a pram outfitted with chicken wire for safety. She, her children, and her grandchildren joyfully gathered there until her father’s death in 2009. Family was always paramount.

Linda called herself an only child but was raised with the weight of the death of her young brother. Named for his father Franklin and nicknamed Bud, he died at age three of meningitis during the Second World War. Grieving their lost son and brother, Linda became the devoted companion to her father and, throughout her life, carried the family legacy with devotion and energetic determination.

Just barely 17 years of age, Linda graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1956. She attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas where she pledged the sorority Delta Delta Delta. Ever the dutiful daughter, Linda returned home each day to eat lunch with her mother then returned to campus for classes. Older cousin Charles, attending Stanford University, suggested she transfer to a woman’s college in the Bay Area. Linda thrived at historic Mills College in Oakland, California with a summer semester in Hawaii (later charming her children with a Hawaiian dance and song she would gleefully perform). Her life changed forever the summer before her senior year of college when Linda met William Custard at a Calyx Club summer party. After just four dates they were engaged by Christmas and, following her graduation, were married in August 1960. They treasured a dynamic and devoted partnership for 65 years.

Linda was a person of action. She partnered with the best and brightest in the community, thrived on making a difference, and worked tirelessly to find solutions that made our city better for all.

Her long curriculum vitae includes a page solely of honors and awards. Alongside this strenuous civic commitment, she served as a partner in the family offices of the Custard & Pitts Investment Company and other family interests. She loved giving back to Dallas, starting as a teenage Candy Striper at Baylor Hospital and culminating in the Linz Award her final year of life. In October of 2025, at 86 years of age, Linda received this century-old Dallas civic honor recognizing individuals whose unpaid community and humanitarian efforts have significantly benefitted Dallas.

For her leadership, Linda was honored with numerous life-time achievement awards including: 2000 TACA Silver Cup Award for outstanding contributions to the arts, 2006 Robert H. Dedman Award for Philanthropy, 2009 Texas Trailblazers Award from the Family Place, 2011 Hearts of Texas Lifetime Achievement Award from the Volunteer Center of North Texas, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Volunteer NOW, Junior League of Dallas Lifetime Achievement Award, Crystal Charity Hall of Fame Honoree, Life Trustee of the Dallas Theater Center, and YMCA 100 Women – 100 Years for women who have helped shape the history of Dallas.

Linda was a trailblazer who recognized difficult truths. She brought the “private” issue of domestic violence to the Junior League and reframed it as a “family issue” in the late 1980’s, bringing scarce resources and safe houses to women and children exiting violent homes.

Similarly, Linda publicly championed the cause of breast cancer when the prevailing attitude was to treat it as a private matter. At the invitation of her friend Nancy Brinker, she attended the seminal gathering for the founding of Susan G. Komen Foundation in honor of Nancy’s sister. Komen changed the discussion of breast cancer from an unmentionable disease, referenced with awkward euphemisms, to a public, worldwide rallying-cry for early detection and prevention.

Linda deeply believed in the mission of breast cancer awareness, funding, and research. In honor of her mother, Linda chaired the 1984 luncheon of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. For 35 years, Linda was a board member of Komen, chair of the National Board, Life Trustee of the organization, and the recipient of its Founder’s Award in 2007. In 2024, she served as the Silver Jubilee Presiding Chair for the Baylor Scott & White 25th Anniversary Celebrating Women Luncheon.

Linda and Bill’s enthusiastic association with SMU represented the pinnacle of their illustrious partnership of giving to the community. In 1992 Linda began a decades long journey of leadership and philanthropy for Southern Methodist University by serving as Chair of the Jubilee Opening of the new Greer Garson Theatre of the Meadows School of the Arts. Along the way, Linda also found time to earn her Executive M.B.A. in 1999 at the Cox School of Business. In 2001, she served as the Chair of the International Festival of Opening Events for the new SMU Meadows Museum, which culminated in a visit from King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain. Linda received the La Encomienda de la Orden de Isabella Católica from King Felipe VI, the highest recognition granted to a non-citizen by the Spanish government.

She was a member of the SMU Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2012 and twice received the Outstanding Trustee Award by the SMU Student’s Association. Linda was recognized as a Trustee Emerita. Linda and Bill established multiple scholarships and endowed programs at Southern Methodist University. In 2021, Linda and Bill founded the Custard Institute for Spanish Art and Culture at the Meadows Museum in partnership with The Meadows Foundation. They also endowed the position of Director of the Meadows Museum of Art as well as student scholarships. They endowed multiple scholarships in the Cox School of Business, established the L. Frank Pitts Energy Leadership Award, the L. Frank Pitts Oil and Gas Lecture Series, and the L. Frank Pitts Oil and Gas Scholars Program. The Custard family received SMU’s philanthropic honor of The Mustang Award in 2022.

Her civic and national boards include Susan G. Komen for the Cure (previously Susan G. Komen Foundation), Junior League of Dallas, The Hockaday School, St. Mark’s School of Texas, The Lamplighter School, Dallas Theater Center, TACA, Dallas Opera, Dallas Historical Society, Dallas Symphony Orchestra League, AT&T Performing Arts Center, Sweetheart Ball, Crystal Charity Ball, Communities Foundation of Texas, Baylor Scott & White Foundation, Hoblitzelle Foundation, The Ruth Foundation, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, Charter 100, Dallas Women’s Foundation, World Affairs Council of Dallas/Ft Worth, Dallas Arboretum, The Science Place, Friends of the Dallas Public Library, Dallas Assembly, YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas, Community Council of Greater Dallas, Homeless Service Task Force & Communication Group, Women’s Council of Dallas County, UT Southwestern Medical Foundation, The 50th: Honoring The Memory of John F. Kennedy, Leadership Dallas, The Dedman Foundation, Flora Awards, and the Association of Junior Leagues International. Linda treasured her 37 years as a member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board.

For all her spectacular achievements, Linda will be most remembered for her integrity, optimism, deep faith, diplomacy, perseverance, fierce devotion, kindness, willing spirit, elegance, and the crinkle of her nose when she was delighted.

Linda is survived by her three children William Allen Custard III (Mason Smith), Martha Eulalia Custard, and Laura Custard Hurt Burcham (Richard); grandchildren Isabella Willis Pescud Custard, William Allen Custard IV, and Franklin Pitts Custard; George Ellison Hurt IV and William Henry Hurt; step-grandchildren Richard Drake Burcham and Grant Lee Burcham. She was preceded in death by her husband William Allen Custard, her grandson Elijah Christian Noel Hurt, and her parents Mary Martha and Lloyd Franklin Pitts.

The family would like to express gratitude to Cherre Walter, Carmen Alfaro, and Aurora Castillo in addition to Pat Brown and Brittany Robinson, along with the other staff of Suzanne’s Angels for their devoted care of Linda.

A Memorial service celebrating the love and life of Linda Pitts Custard will be held on Friday, February 20, 2026 at 1:00pm at Highland Park Presbyterian Church on University Boulevard in Dallas, Texas. For those out of town or unable to attend, the service will be available on a livestream at hppres.org/memorial. The graveside burial will be private.

Contributions in her memory can be made to the following: The Custard Institute at SMU (MeadowsMuseumDallas.org, select Donate, select Custard Institute of Spanish Art & Culture or PO Box 750357, Dallas, TX 75275-0357), and breast cancer research through Baylor Scott & White Foundation (Dallasfoundation.bswhealth.com/Linda Custard or mail to 301 N. Washington Avenue, Dallas, TX 75246, memo: In Memory of Linda Custard).