Beloved Dallas public relations mogul Stan Levenson dies at 91

Stan Levenson, a beloved and highly respected figure in the Dallas media world, died on August 27 from natural causes in his home; he was 91.

With his advertising-savvy wife, Barbara, Levenson spent more than 50 years at firms such as Levenson, Levenson & Hill Inc., representing clients such as American Airlines, Zales, Chili’s, Papa John’s, and the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas, creating campaigns such as the one that launched Chili’s iconic “Baby Back Ribs” jingle.

Levenson also had a showbiz side: orchestrating publicity campaigns, film screenings, and world premieres for Hollywood organizations and celebrities such as Quincy Jones, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, and Paramount.

He was a big jazz buff with a massive record collection he donated to Tulane University in New Orleans. And in 1967, he co-opened an R&B nightclub called Soul City on Greenville Avenue.

He was a community-oriented citizen who served on multiple boards and committees such as the Greater Dallas Chamber, the Mayor’s Task Force on Marketing Southern Dallas, the Dallas Arboretum, the Texas Trees Foundation, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, the North Texas Commission, the President’s Council of the AT&T Center for the Performing Arts, and the Legacy Council at the Sammons Center for the Performing Arts.

He won numerous awards from organizations such as the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Who's Who in America, and was the honoree at a Distinguished Living Legend Luncheon by the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU, where he taught public relations classes in the late '80s.

Levenson earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Michigan in 1956. Following graduation, he served in the U.S. Army for two years. He came to Dallas in 1959 to work as a regional sales and promotion manager for DOT Records of Hollywood.

Levenson is survived by Barbara Levenson; their daughter and son-in-law, Laura Levenson Gottesman and Morris Gottesman of Austin; their daughter Amy Levenson Krumholz of Dallas; his brother and his wife, Alan and Renay Levenson of Atlanta; his sister and her husband, Carol Salmon and Norman Broad of Miami; and six grandsons, four great-grandsons, and one great-granddaughter. Services are pending.