Alicia Wiggs Landry, the wife of longtime Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, died Thursday at the age of 91.
According to an obituary published at Dignity Memorial, Landry was born on Jan. 12, 1930, in Elberton, Georgia.
She grew up in Dallas and attended Hockaday and Highland Park High School before moving to Austin to attend the University of Texas. It was there she was set up on a blind date with "a handsome UT football player named Tom Landry."
The couple was married in 1949, according to The Dallas Morning News, not long after Landry led the Longhorns to an Orange Bowl victory over The University of Georgia.
"I wasn't that interested in football," Alicia told the paper almost 35 years later. "I was really a Tommy fan."
Her obituary said the couple shared an "incredible journey of love" that lasted for more than five decades until his death of leukemia in 2000.
"She had a wonderful sense of humor and a style and wit that could light up a room. She was creative and smart, designing the house that would become their family home for 20 years as they raised their 3 children Tom, Kitty and Lisa. It was a home filled with warmth and love," her family said in the obituary.
In 2010, Alicia shared rare memorabilia related to her husband's career at the State Fair of Texas. That same year, she was also given the key to the city of Irving. It was the last time a key featured the image of Texas Stadium.
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Alicia was preceded in death by her husband and her daughter Lisa Childress, her parents Herbert and Frances Wiggs and her sister Linda Whitworth. She is survived by her son Tom Landry Jr and wife, Gina; her daughter Kitty and husband, Eddie Phillips and a number of children and great-grandchildren.
The family wished to give special thanks to Juan and Sylvia Arriaga for their loving and loyal care over the past 30 years. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the North Texas FCA at https://northtexasfca.org/donate or to Highland Park United Methodist Church in memory of Alicia Landry at 3300 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas.
A memorial service is planned for a later date.
