By Sarah Mitchell
values—how well we treat each other, how well we memorialize our past, and how committed we are to the public good,” she shared. “It’s a great place to live!”
By Sarah Mitchell
values—how well we treat each other, how well we memorialize our past, and how committed we are to the public good,” she shared. “It’s a great place to live!”
Mark your calendars for a night of music and dancing on Saturday, January 31, 2026, as the Junior Symphony Ball takes over the iconic Gilley’s Dallas for an evening of fun and entertainment.
Steering Committee tickets go on sale Wednesday, September 3, 2025 at 9 am. and will be available online at www.dallassymphonyleague.com.
Two price levels will be available:
Steering Committee – $395.00 – One Steering Committee Membership with required parent/guardian DSOL 6/1/25-5/31/26 membership (includes 1 JSB ticket)
Steering Committee with VIP entrance – $495.00 – One Steering Committee Membership with dedicated VIP entrance at JSB
General admission tickets will be available in January, 2026 for $175.
The JSB is the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League’s longest running fundraiser now in its 68th year. It is a student-led event that unites high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors for a night filled with live music, dance, gaming tables, exciting raffle prizes, and refreshments. Funds raised benefit education and community engagement programs of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
The lineup of the 2026 Co-Chairs represents schools across Dallas: Clara Erwin (Highland Park High School), Lucy Galbraith (Ursuline Academy), Meghan Jackson (Parish Episcopal School), Teige Mitchell (Jesuit College Preparatory of Dallas), Peter Rubi (St. Mark’s School of Texas), Brooks Strey (Bishop Lynch High School), Jack Sumner (Highland Park High School), Mary Bradley Sutherland (The Hockaday School), Michael Woram (Jesuit College Preparatory of Dallas), and Stella Wynne (The Episcopal School of Dallas).
Their supportive and proud moms are: Dansby Erwin, Lauren Sutherland, Michelene Galbraith, Alyson Jackson, Kristin Mitchell, Tiffany Rubi, Courtenay Strey, Kelsie Sumner, Dana Woram, and Tia Wynne.
For further information: www.dallassymphonyleague/com.
By Sarah Mitchell
Bonnie Wheeler, originally from Boston, has had a long and distinguished career at SMU, where she’s taught for 50 years. She was recruited to SMU in 1975 after teaching at Columbia University in New York City. This fall, she’ll celebrate her remarkable 50-year SMU milestone, with no sign of slowing down. She came to Dallas with her husband, Jeremy duQuesnay Adams, another scholar of the Middle Ages. Now widowed, she’s lived on the same street all these years in a house that is celebrating its one-hundredth birthday.
Bonnie‘s journey in Dallas was fulfilling on many levels. “Our daughter had a wonderful education at the Highland Park schools,” she said, as did her nieces who also grew up in the Park Cities. Bonnie believes the Park Cities school system provides an unusually solid foundation for students. “Whatever students do in the future will be due in large measure to their background with passionate teachers who have expertise in their subjects. I’ve always thought that the greatest boon for the Park Cities is that we have a school system that has the solid support of the community and insists upon retaining the highest quality of teachers.”
Bonnie’s step-daughter Constance Adams, after graduating with a degree in architecture from Yale and her undergraduate degree from Harvard, went on to work in Japan and Berlin before eventually working for NASA. She always claimed that HPHS provided her best education. Sadly, Constance passed away from cancer, but Bonnie now has two adored granddaughters in Houston.
After fifty years in Dallas, Bonnie feels fortunate. For fun, she authored a book about the 3400-block of University Boulevard that began as a simple scanning experiment but turned into a two-year oral history study, the first known study of a single block in the USA. “It started out as a project that I thought would take me a weekend,” she explained. She wanted to learn how to scan documents early in the days of computer technology, specifically to create a collection of photos from the original families of her block. This project evolved into a massive effort, where Bonnie and friends (including architectural historian Virginia McAlester) managed to contact all living original homeowners from her block in order to collect stories and histories about their lives and the architecture of their homes.
Bonnie’s interest in medieval studies began in graduate school, where she initially planned to work in contemporary drama. “I took the one class offered in contemporary drama but then decided to get ahead of requirements by getting rid of medieval courses. “I expected these to be boring, but they were riveting. By the end of that semester, I realized that the thousand years of global medieval literature hadn’t been adequately studied with the tools of contemporary scholarship,” she recalled. In addition to her own scholarship (11 academic books), she is also editor of a very successful book series, The New Middle Ages, which now has more that 250 books in print, many dedicated to studies of medieval women. Wheeler has been gifted with two festschrifts, which are collections of essays in her honor offered by colleagues around the world. Just this spring, Bonnie was cited in the hundredth-anniversary issue of the primary international journal in medieval studies as “indefatigable in cultivating and fiercely defending the thought and work of so many early career folk, many of whom were doing risky and theoretically daring work; she modeled a feminism in action that is rare in the field.”
She has herself published 11 academic books on medieval subjects. One of her most significant scholarly contributions is her work on Joan of Arc. “Because of her terrible trials, all her life records are still available,” Bonnie explained. “When you start reading those amazing records, you understand why Mark Twain said that his favorite work was his study of Joan of Arc.”
Bonnie’s time at SMU has revolved around her passion for medieval literature and history. Her special expertise lies in Arthurian literature–the chivalric legendary of King Arthur and the Round Table, with its political and social reverberations. Dante and Chaucer are also never far from her mind. “I learn something new every time I teach this literature.” she said, “My students always bring fresh insights.” Bonnie’s teaching has not been limited to the classroom: Her life overflows with university connections. Over the years, she’s developed academic and international programs and taken students and fellow faculty on trips to medieval sites across the world, including Jerusalem, Paris, Rome and Florence. This year, her students dedicated their spring break to studying medieval Barcelona. Mostly, however, her home close to campus is a welcoming site of frequent student conversations and events.
Bonnie is the founder of Arthuriana, the first peer-reviewed journal dedicated to Arthurian studies, which she edited from 1994 to 2009. In addition to her numerous articles on medieval literature in Latin, English, French, and Japanese, she has edited or co-authored eleven peer-reviewed books of essays. She has also received SMU’s Outstanding Teacher Award six times and was honored with the Phi Beta Kappa Perrine Prize for excellence in scholarship and teaching. This spring, SMU gave her its “Literati Award.”
Bonnie also fondly remembers working alongside her husband, who specialized in early medieval studies. “It was such a pleasure that Jeremy and I taught in the same general field,” she said. “He did the early Middle Ages, I did the later Middle Ages, but we taught classes together.” For them, teaching wasn’t just about imparting knowledge; it was about introducing students to important issues and encouraging them to think critically and be deeply engaged in their worlds.
When not immersed in teaching or research, Bonnie enjoys spending time with friends and family. “I have an extended family, and I love spending time with them,” she said. Bonnie finds joy in watching her granddaughters grow into independent young women and is also impressed by the cultural offerings of Dallas. “I love city life. I love things like the Undermain Theater here in Dallas. They do vital work.”
Bonnie also emphasized the importance of staying connected with younger people. “I learn so much from younger people. I don’t feel as if I’m always teaching them. I feel much of the time that they’re teaching me,” she said. “But I also worry about their lives and futures. And I’m \concerned about doing what I can do to help improve their lives.” For Bonnie, listening is one of the most important ways she can offer support. “The biggest learning challenge for all of us is to how to be a better listener.”
Looking back on her own life, Bonnie feels fortunate to still be in touch with her teachers from the past. “I’m so lucky that I have teachers who are still alive. At the end of this spring term, I get to go work with my most important teacher, a Quaker scholar who retired to Asheville, and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Bonnie has deep affection for the Park Cities neighborhood where she has lived for many years. “All houses, especially old houses, require constant care. We should all participate in the Park Cities Historical Society I’ve been lucky to work with great architects like Craig Melde, and contractors like Dan McKeithen, to update my home while maintaining its historic character. I’ve delighted in working with Amy Bartell of Studio One to reinvent my landscaping.” She cares about maintaining our sense of community and making sure that everyone, including those in need, is supported. “I care a lot about making sure that our neighborhood remains committed to certain values—how well we treat each other, how well we memorialize our past, and how committed we are to the public good,” she shared. “It’s a great place to live!”
Lucinda Buford, originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, arrived in the Park Cities in 1990 after finishing college. In 1989, she had traveled to Dallas for a wedding where she sat next to a stranger who would become her future husband. She attended Rhodes College in Memphis because of its beautiful setting, close community, and rich history that bridged past and present. She studied psychology, which she credits with helping her understand how different personalities react to stress and decision-making—an invaluable skill in her real estate career.
Lucinda’s husband, Barry, began building homes in Preston Hollow in 1998 and has continued steadily ever since. Before entering real estate, Lucinda worked in corporate training. After she and Barry had twins, she stayed home for a decade and assisted him in starting a home-building company. She eventually got her real estate license to help locate lots for his projects. “I would push my babies around the neighborhood, talking to people who might want to sell their lots,” she recalls. “I also saw listings in the newspaper and told friends, ‘Hey, this is the kind of house you’re looking for,’ and they ended up buying. It dawned on me I could do this professionally.” As her children grew older, she officially launched her real estate career in 2008. Having lived in University Park, Preston Hollow, and now Highland Park, she is able to bring firsthand knowledge of the area’s history. She has also handled transactions in Frisco, Plano, East Dallas, and other parts of North Texas.
Today, Barry and Lucinda’s twins are 27 years old. Their son, Harrison, graduated from Dallas Baptist University and now works for Gartner Consulting, and their daughter, Anna, went to Amherst College in Massachusetts and is currently in her fourth year of medical school at UT Southwestern. Anna’s husband, Luke Nguyen, works as an attorney for Haynes Boone.
Lucinda and Barry often take quick getaways to Santa Fe and plan more extensive trips to Italy when possible. They have traveled as a family to France, Italy, and Mexico, and have a trip scheduled this month to Gasparilla Island off the west coast of Florida. Locally, you can find them at the Dallas Arboretum wandering the gardens or at a Cool Thursdays concert, or you might see them at a baseball game cheering on the Texas Rangers.
Volunteering is also important to them, and they are involved with The Magdalen House, a recovery center for women struggling with alcoholism. “We really felt there was a need for men’s programming, too, and pushed to make it happen in 2024,” Lucinda explained.
The couple share their home with Gus, a Bichon who joins them on the Katy Trail most Saturdays. In addition to walking the trail, you can also find Lucinda donating her time to Preservation Park Cities. In 2008 when they purchased their current home, they were living in a house Barry built in University Park, assuming it would be their forever home. One day, Barry took a wrong-turn down Versailles Avenue, saw a for-sale sign, and the couple decided to buy the property despite its many issues. On neighbors’ advice, Lucinda got involved with Preservation Park Cities, serving on the board and eventually as president in 2017. That same year, their renovated home received historic landmark status. “I love the sense of community that comes from everyone working together to benefit the neighborhood,” she says.
She refers to the Park Cities as “a small town within a big city,” offering a tight-knit community alongside easy access to all that Dallas has to offer. “It’s an incredible place to be close to everything you might want in a vibrant urban area, yet still benefit from services like cross-trained medical, police, and fire departments. And about 33 percent of the real estate here is devoted to green spaces.” Lucinda’s familiarity with every pocket of the Park Cities allows her to anticipate each client’s unique needs. “Every area here has its own rhythm and vibe,” she explained. She believes that talking early in the search process helps match clients with places that suit their lifestyles perfectly. “It’s not only about price per square foot,” she said. “It’s about the life you’ll live, and I can speak to that from different vantage points in these communities.”