Brokerage founder Virginia Cook has died

The woman known as a “5-foot-2-inch powerhouse” of real estate over the course of a career that covered the residential side of DFW’s rise into a metroplex of national and global standing has died. She was 84.

Virginia Cook, co-founder of Dallas-based Virginia Cook Realtors, died on July 13, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing confirmation from Cook’s longtime business partner Sheila Rice. 

No cause of death has been given; Cook had a stroke in 2015, sustaining some  paralysis and other effects that gave difficulty in speaking. 

Cook spent more than 50 years working in residential real estate in Dallas, joining Rice in a brokerage that eventually grew to six offices spread over North Dallas, Uptown, the Park Cities, Sherman, Fort Worth and Plano. The firm was among the largest independent brokerages in North Texas when it closed in 2019.

The Dallas Morning News coined the “5-foot-2-inch powerhouse” description in a 2018 profile of Cook, noting the “determination, wit and energy” she brought to her professional and personal lives. The profile placed her in a pantheon of female real estate pioneers in the Dallas-area, “with Allie Beth Allman and the late Ebby Halliday.”

Cook made it a practice to visit one of her firm’s six offices every day, after she had spent about two years recovering from her stroke. She hired a driver to make the rounds and used a motorized wheelchair to get around at her daily destinations.

Rice noted that Cook could understand conversation partners after her stroke, even if she had trouble responding beyond catch phrases such as “Wonderful! Wonderful!” and “Let’s go!” 

Cook started in the business in 1960 as a 20-year-old student at Southern Methodist University. Texas law at the time required her to obtain her husband’s permission to pursue a real estate license.

She worked for Judge Fite, Paula Stringer Realtors and Henry S. Miller Company before launching her venture in partnership with Rice.

“Virginia’s not like anybody I’ve ever known,” Rice said in 2018. “She’s so smart. She’s so clever. She’s so witty. And she is so absolutely going to do it her way on things like this. That bullheadedness has helped her begin to rebuild her life.”

Funeral arrangements for Cook have not yet been announced.

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