Legendary Dallas Philanthropist Dies at Age 106: Remembering the Incredible Life of Margaret McDermott

Margaret McDermott, who died today at 106, was wheelchair-bound for the last many years of her life, but she radiated the energy and enthusiasm of a woman much younger.

With perfectly coiffed silver hair and twinkling eyes, McDermott drew throngs of well-wishers and admirers wherever she went — and she didn’t hesitate to reach out and squeeze a hand, or ask for a stranger’s name and inquire more about them. She was curious about everything — that was the trained journalist in her, she liked to say — and her unbridled fascination with life is also what drove her remarkable generosity.

During her lifetime, McDermott bestowed millions to local arts, education, and science institutions, both personally and via the Eugene McDermott Foundation, named after her husband who died in 1973.

Richard Brettell, the Margaret McDermott distinguished professor of arts and aesthetics at UTD, once said no one had given more to the university than she, or had more of a profound effect on so many varied cultural, civic, and educational groups.

Recipients of her largess included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the AT&T Performing Arts Center, the Dallas Opera, and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. In 2005, she bestowed the Dallas Museum of Art with one of the most important Impressionist paintings ever held in private hands in Texas: Monet’s 1903 Water Lilies, The Clouds.

Last year, McDermott bequeathed her entire private collection of art to the DMA, and celebrated the announcement with a lunch for museum board members and officials at her rambling circa-1970 Highland Park house, filled with Modern and Impressionist works by the likes of Georgia O’Keefe, Pierre Bonnard, and Camille Pissarro.

She helped fund the Margaret McDermott Bridge spanning the Trinity River, which was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and completed in 2017.

Born in Austin in 1912, McDermott studied journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and during the Great Depression wrote for the Dallas Times Herald and The Dallas Morning News, where she was society editor and covered debutante balls and charity events. During World War II, McDermott had a stint in Germany covering news.

She married Eugene McDermott in 1952, who went on to co-found Texas Instruments, and her husband’s success opened a new world of arts and high society to the couple — a life of benevolence that landed their names in the paper with frequency.

The attention wasn’t something McDermott was ever comfortable with, and while others rightly labeled her a philanthropist, in later years, she often insisted she simply be called a journalist.