Billie Leigh (Morgan) Rippey

Billie Leigh joined her Lord and Savior on February 6, 2022, just two months after celebrating her 90th birthday. She passed away peacefully in her family home of 58 years surrounded by her loving family.

Billie Leigh was born in Houston, TX ,on December 7, 1931. Her mother Billie Fondren Morgan (great-great-granddaughter of the second governor of Texas) taught Billie Leigh to take pride in that she was a seventh generation Texan. She was then raised in Shreveport, LA, during her cherished high school years, attending Byrd High School where she enjoyed cheerleading (something that stuck, as she was everyone’s cheerleader in life!) and was an ROTC sponsor. Upon graduation, she moved to Dallas to attend SMU and, very soon after arriving on campus, she met Bill Rippey, a captain of the SMU Football team and President of the SAE fraternity. She loved telling the story of how she fell in love with Bill’s “cute calves” before falling in love with the man. Billie Leigh and Bill were happily married for 43 years before his untimely death at the young age of 65 years old in 1995.

Billie Leigh and Bill were quite the couple in town. Bill rose to Managing Partner of the renowned law firm Strasburger and Price and Billie Leigh became a mother, community leader and sought after fundraiser for virtually every charitable cause imaginable. In 1957, Billie Leigh was a founder of the Women’s Guild of the United Cerebral Palsy (UCP), as well as a past president and chairperson of the annual UCP Ball, one of the largest fundraisers in Dallas at that time. Her other significant contributions and leadership roles within the arts and sciences are too numerous to list, but include TACA, The Crystal Charity Ball, Dallas Theatre Center, KERA, Pi Beta Phi Mother’s Club, Dallas Summer Musicals, The Salvation Army, the first female member of Doak Walker Associates, founder of the “Friends of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center” at UT Southwestern Medical Center, chair of The Women’s Board of the Dallas Opera, the first “Walk to Cure Lupus” and Chairperson of Tiffany Circle benefitting The American Red Cross.

Amongst all her wonderful accomplishments, Billie Leigh found the most joy in life through her family and close friends. She adored her two daughters, Paige and Tricia, and her grandchildren. Fittingly, Billie Leigh became known by her grandchildren as “GG” (Gorgeous Grandmother!) and introduced herself as such with pride to anyone and everyone she met. Loving and loyal, effervescent and magnetic, she truly was everyone’s GG.

The Rippey family enjoyed their summer trips to the Garden of the God’s Club in Colorado Springs, CO, where they played golf, tennis and danced the night away with the majestic backdrop of Pike’s Peak and the Kissing Camels. Billie Leigh immensely enjoyed her membership and meeting friends—old and new at Dallas Country Club, The Dallas Woman’s Club and The Dallas Garden Club.

Billie Leigh is preceded in death by her husband William M. Rippey, her mother, Billie Fondren Morgan and her stepfather, Turner Bradley Morgan. She leaves behind a loving family including daughters Paige Locke (Chuck), Tricia Besing (Gil); grandchildren, Brent Besing, Katie Leigh Smith (Preston) and Allie Champion (Glenn); and great-grandchildren Asher, Caleb and Landry Smith and Arthur Champion.

Many who knew GG were aware of her love for butterflies, and in Christian tradition, butterflies can be seen as emblems of rebirth and representative of resurrection; Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Rest in peace, our darling butterfly.

Her family would especially like to thank Billie Leigh’s caretaker, Diann Grant, for her love and care during the past three years and her assistant Kristin Burgess for managing Billie Leigh’s affairs for the past sixteen years.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to UT Southwestern Medical Center, PO Box 910888 Dallas, TX, 75391-0888 or online at engage.utsouthwestern.edu/donatenow to support the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Billie Leigh’s memorial service will be held at the Church of the Incarnation, 3966 McKinney Avenue, Dallas, Texas, on Monday, February 14, at 4pm with a reception at Dallas Country Club from 5 – 6:30pm.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.Sparkman-Hillcrest.com for the Rippey family.