SMU remembers Mary Anne Sammons Cree '51
July 26, 2021
Dallas philanthropist and civic leader Mary Anne Sammons Cree passed away July 21, 2021, leaving a legacy of leadership, generosity and nature-inspired landmarks that will delight Dallas residents for generations to come.
Visitors who brush by a butterfly at the Texas Discovery Gardens Butterfly House, Girl Scouts who gaze upon stars from the three-story Observation Tower at the Girl Scout STEM Center of Excellence and art-lovers who admire Santiago Calatrava’s sculpture, “Wave,” at SMU’s main entrance experience wonder thanks to Cree’s vision and generosity.
“Mary Anne brought vision and perception to her philanthropy,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “She supported causes that brought people together in joyful and thoughtful ways. From the performing and visual arts to plans to develop the Trinity River as a place of natural respite, Mary Anne was dedicated to making Dallas a better place for everyone.”
Her legacy of community support began as a child, going door-to-door with her mother, Rosine Smith Sammons, raising money for the United Way, then known as the Community Chest. She remained active in the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas the rest of her life, serving on the board of directors and leading and supporting fundraising campaigns. The Mary Anne Sammons Cree United Way of Metropolitan Dallas headquarters is named in her honor.
From the inviting pools at Sammons Park at the AT&T Performing Arts Center, to the Sammons Center for the Arts, to SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, Cree celebrated live performances, artists and spaces for creativity. Thanks to her generosity, the Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park, named for her father and his second wife, brings the AT&T Center outdoors, providing a space for performances and picnics. She served on the Emeritus Council of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, the Board of Directors of The Dallas Opera and the Board of Trustees of Dallas Museum of Art, and also chaired the board of Sammons Center for the Arts, an incubator for small performing arts groups that supports artists beginning their careers.
A 1951 graduate of SMU, Cree was pivotal in the expansion of SMU’s Meadows Museum, commissioning “Wave,” a moving sculpture created by Santiago Calatrava for the museum’s opening. Calatrava’s first large-scale sculpture in the United States welcomes visitors to the campus. She honored her mother, a 1925 SMU journalism graduate, by establishing the Rosine Smith Sammons Lecture Series in Media Ethics, which brings media experts to lecture on campus. Dedicated to providing opportunities to students, she supported Meadows’ Impact Scholarship Fund as well as the Rosine Smith Sammons Endowed Scholarship in Journalism. She served on the Meadows School of the Arts Executive Board as well as the Meadows Museum Advisory Council.
“We were deeply saddened to learn of Mary Anne Cree’s passing,” said Samuel Holland, dean of SMU Meadows School of the Arts. “She has been an ardent supporter of both the Meadows School and Meadows Museum for many years, serving in board leadership positions, establishing the Sammons Lecture in Media Ethics in our journalism department and providing for the acquisition of major artworks by the museum. We are so grateful that we were able to honor her in April at our Meadows at the Meyerson concert and officially recognize her long-standing generosity and impact on our school.”