Love Conquers All

Neely Clare put the "D" in Dallas Debutante.

She was stylish, beautiful, and envied. If ever a young woman epitomized the spirit, soul, and image of Dallas, Neely was her.

Raised in Lakewood as a child of the ostentatious 1980's Gilded Age of Dallas, Neely led a charmed life:

As was custom for a daughter of one of Dallas' most established old-money families, she was educated at only the finest preparatory academies. She was very active in the Junior League (of course). She made regular appearances in the Society pages of D.Magazine, Park Cities People, and (oddly) Al Dia.

Neely also was very often romantically linked to family members of some of Dallas' most respected billionaire tycoons, including the sons of H. Ross Perot, T. Boone Pickens, and (regrettably, for all involved) Tom Hicks' learning-challenged son, Wilbur.

Dallas' Favorite Little Socialite had it all...

Then she fell in love.

In an instant, one of the city's most desired bachelorettes was off the market; swept off her $900 Jimmy Choos by Michael, a man of few manners and questionable--if any--pedigree.

Michael was not bona fide, his family did not own any oil wells, he had a hairy neck, and--to add insult to shame--he was (gasp!) a Yankee.

"Stay away from that carpetbagging buffoon!" her friends at Stanley Korshak warned her.
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That "carpetbagging buffoon," Michael, boozing it up on one of Neely's father's private jets

But Neely was smitten.

Love was more important to her than money ('and it had better be', some whispered, as it was rumored that a Neanderthal such as Michael probably still operated on the barter system).

Lunches at the Hotel Crescent Court soon turned into daily visits to the 99-Cent Value Menu at Wendy's on Buckner Boulevard. Estrogen-fueled excursions to Highland Park Village morphed into weekly jaunts to the Family Dollar on Ferguson Road.

But Neely's love for Michael had no dollar value, and within weeks the lovebirds were married (in a touching ceremony at Garland City Hall, no less).
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The wedding was a "Who's-not" of Garland mobile-home inhabitants


The newlyweds lived out of Michael's TransAm for a while, but that only intensified their torrid love affair. Some of Neely's snobby ex-friends even secretly wished that they, too, could be so lucky as to experience a love so pure and innocent as Michael and Neely's...

Neely now lives happily-ever-after, and the couple has since upgraded to a quad-plex in Mesquite. She is also the doting owner of a frisky mongrel (ironically, also of questionable pedigree) named Kramer. Kramer is the most adorable $10 mutt you will ever see, as pictured below.

Some people say Neely should have married the dog, but those folks are just bitter and jealous...
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Wouldn't you rather kiss this cutie than kiss Michael? I know I would...