Photography by Danny Fulgencio.
Entrepreneur+storyteller
Robert Emery, 59, knew he was gay at the age of 9 because he wanted to be married to Dick Van Dyke instead of Laura Petrie.
“I wanted that life, that marriage, that living room,” he says of the 1960s TV show. “I was in love with him.”
Emery graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in interior design and from Texas State University with a master’s degree in theater. He and his family traveled on Northwest Highway to Lovers Lane Methodist Church, and he dreamed of living in Preston Tower condominiums. He first lived in the building’s one-room efficiency. Seven apartments and 33 years later, he dwells in the tower’s penthouse.
In addition to owning beauty salons in Preston Tower, Emery is a founder of The Dallas Way, which started in 2011. The organization partners with the University of North Texas library to be the largest repository of LGBTQ history in the Southwest. He also worked to bring Texas’ first LGBTQ Subject Marker awarded by the Texas Historical Commission to Dallas at the intersection of Cedar Springs Road and Throckmorton Street.
“We may have had Oak Lawn in the 1970s and ’80s, but Preston Hollow is like Oak Lawn North. We just live quieter lives,” Emery says. “Preston Hollow for an LGBTQ citizen is fantastic. Dallas is a progressive, open hearted, loving city.”
Emery’s life wasn’t always so peaceful. His family discovered he was gay when he was 19 and his mom overheard him talking on the telephone. “She gave me a toothbrush, opened the front door and pointed toward the street.” He was kicked out of the house. He quickly returned and told her, “I’m not gay. I’m not.” She took him back in.
“Preston Hollow for an LGBT citizen is fantastic. Dallas is a progressive, open hearted, loving city.”
Ten years later, his mom toured Europe by bus with the Turtle Creek Chorale, Dallas’ primarily gay men’s chorus. She also was one of the group’s largest donors.
“When people say, ‘I don’t know if I should come out.’ I say, ‘Come out today! The sooner the better. The aunt, mother or father that you don’t think is ready will surprise you.’ ”
Emery, who recently returned from the “Queer History South” convention in Birmingham, Alabama, is writing a 40-minute one-act play for the Dallas Museum of Art’s late night event June 21 on why Judy Garland is a gay icon. He’s also contributing to the Dallas Holocaust Museum’s permanent LGBTQ presentation, which will be unveiled Sept. 17.
Being a self-employed entrepreneur has protected him from workplace discrimination that others face, but he knows what it’s like to be hassled in public for his sexuality. “Lots of gay people can be invisible and blend in, but I don’t,” he says. “I walk in a room and everyone knows I’m gay. I don’t mind that, but it can make me a target.”
Working with the Coalition for Aging LGBTQ is another passion. The non-profit group trains and educates staff at retirement communities. Research shows that 99 percent of gays are not interested in living in a retirement community that’s exclusively LGBTQ, he says. “They just want the world to be culturally competent and fair. That’s the work we do.”
Emery is particularly close to his niece, EmeryAnn, and her children, Finley, 7, and River, 4. Every Tuesday he picks up the kids from school, takes them to the playground and dinner before returning home for bath, pajamas, reading and homework. When the children are asked to draw a picture of their family, they draw a mommy, daddy, brother, sister, uncle and a dog. “I cherish those illustrations of the stick figures with the shining sun and sideways chimney. We’re a family of five.”
For more information, visit thedallasway.org, cfa.lgbt and invisiblehistory.org.
