1116 LILAC | Yard of the Month

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2026 FEATURE

A CELEBRATION OF DECORATION by Bonnie Blackwell

Fairmount’s Yard of the Month winners for October and December 2025 are Michael and Jessie Ray of 1116 Lilac. The Rays purchased the home in March 2023 after looking at dozens of residences in Dallas and Fort Worth. They longed for a close-knit, historic neighborhood similar to those they had experienced in San Antonio, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida and found that Fairmount fit the bill. They fell in love with 1116 Lilac, a Craftsman-adjacent bungalow which was built in 1921 for railroad clerk William T. Turner, his wife Annie, and their son Thomas Lawrence. The Turners previously lived nearby at 1819 College Ave. while the home was being built for them on the lot purchased in 1920. 

Willie Turner was born February 17, 1884 to Charles and Nannie (née Stubbs) Turner in Freestone, Texas; his father was a South Carolina transplant, and his mother was born in Freestone to British Hotelier Peter Stubbs. After a brief stint in the Army during World War I, Willie worked first for the T and P Railroads, and then at the George W. Saunders Livestock Commission Company for 20 years. Lawrence, their son, born August 18, 1906, became a civil engineer. His Central High School yearbook photo shows a calm young man whose inspirational quote was “I’d like to study.” By contrast, the other teenagers provided quotes like, “save me a place at the dance!” and “what am I going to do with all these girls!?”

In 1931 Lawrence married Martha King in El Paso, but the marriage was short-lived. In 1936, Lawrence married TCU undergrad Elizabeth Fielder and the pair moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, for his job. However, they returned two years later when Lawrence’s dad, Willie, died (April 26, 1938) of tuberculosis at the young age of 54, to move in with and support his recently widowed mom and her mother-in-law, Nannie. That same year, the younger Turners had a daughter, Cynthia, and the five Turners lived in a multi-generational household at 1116 Lilac until Lawrence, too, passed at the tragically early age of 45 of heart failure. The home then sold in 1952 to neighbors (owners of 1109 Lilac), who converted it into a multi-family rental property. 1116 Lilac remained a triplex until 2013, when it was purchased by Dustin Browning, who has owned and renovated multiple homes in Fairmount and Ryan Place. Browning converted it back to single-family occupancy. 

          When they first saw the house online, Jessie Ray reports that she was not encouraged by the bland “white and millennial gray” builder palette, but once they toured the home in person, she knew she could put her own distinctive stamp on the home. Those white and beige interiors were replaced by a pale pink kitchen and a deep azure living room, both decorated with comic book art, pop art and mid-century cultural references. The home’s exterior is navy blue, with chartreuse green door screens and seating, pink front doors and Frida Kahlo-print curtains. As homeowners who have previously lived in more tropical climates, the Rays are experimenting with native Texas plantings for zone 7. The landscaping, included a number of established opuntia engelmanni, or Texas prickly pear cactus, to which they added sansevieria, also known as snake plant or “mother-in-law’s tongue,” and their collection of potted tropical plants (most of which are currently wintering indoors). They’ve also planted gaura or “whirling butterflies.”  The Rays have also been delighted to plant native trees, including a sugar maple, through the Tarrant Forestry department, a program to “retree Fairmount” managed by the Peredas of Lipscomb St. 

   This YOTM, though, recognizes their remarkable holiday décor more than the landscaping. The FNA normally awards this honor for just one holiday, but the Rays show up and show out multiple times a year, with unique installations that delight the students at Daggett Middle (the race track is directly opposite their front door). Each year, starting about 6 weeks before the holiday in question, Jessie Ray begins to work on developing her theme. Her commitment to holiday decor is so complete, that even the Google earth photo of their home in online maps shows a Mardi Gras banner, and a giant gold mask on the house’s front-facing windows. For Halloween, the front yard is a tribute to Jessie’s favorite filmmaker, Tim Burton, and his 1988 horror/comedy masterpiece, Beetlejuice. Only the animatronic figure for Michael Keaton’s Betelgeuse is store-bought, and the rest Jessie builds, paints, and glues herself. She crafts the different iterations of the nightmarish sandworms from pool noodles and PVC, including one giant entrance tent for trick-or-treaters which resembles a segmented worm body. For the distressed souls in the bureaucratic “Afterlife Waiting Room,” the Rays use a combination of mannequin parts purchased at Old Home Supply on College Ave and craft supplies to achieve the “char man,” the magician’s assistant sliced in half, the shrunken head figure, Road Kill man, Barbara Maitland with the crocodile jaw, and the receptionists Juno and Miss Argentina.  One non-Beetlejuice figure included in the yard display is Audrey 2, the carnivorous plant from Frank Oz’s 1986 rock horror musical, Little Shop of Horrors, which Jessie made by applying disco tiles to a pumpkin with Gorilla glue. The Rays also project Beetlejuice on a portable screen in the front yard, which sometimes leads to a group of trick or treaters stopping for minutes at a time, mesmerized by Winona Ryder lip-synching to Harry Belafonte’s 1961 recording of “Jump in the Line.”

                  For Christmas, the Ray’s theme is the 1966 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas. There are multiple Grinches, both plywood and inflatable, as well as an inflatable Cindy Lou Who, and a “Welcome to Whoville” banner. They also put out a line of luminarias for a traditional touch and repurpose one of the Halloween sandworm archways to hold Christmas lights. Again, there are multiple films to project on a screen, including the inspiration cartoon and the Jim Carrey feature length 2000 film, The Grinch. This year for Mardi Gras, Jessie Ray reports that she is planning to turn their porch into a New Orleans-style float, with beads and flowers, while an alligator and a crawdad will frolic in the yard, and that the plastic baby found in a King cake will feature prominently in the design. Be sure to stop by and take a look. 

For their year-round commitment to beautifying Fairmount, the Rays have our thanks, and a $30 gift certificate to Calloway’s Nursery.
The Yard of the Month committee is chaired by Bonnie Blackwell. 

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WORKS CITED

Sources

Central High School Yearbook, 1922. Archived at ancestry.com.

Death Certificates. Texas Dept of Health and Bureau of Vital Statistics. Government

documents. Archived at ancestry.com.

Homeowner Interview, Jan 11. 2025.

“Miss Fielder and Mr. Turner Wed and Leave for Louisiana.”  Fort Worth Star Telegram. 06

Sept. 1936. Print. Archived at newspapers.com.

Tarrant County Deed History Cards.

https://www.tarrantcountytx.gov/en/tax/property-tax/deed-history-card.htmlWeb.

US Census, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940. Government documents.

Archived at ancestry.com

US World War I and II Draft Cards, 1917, 1940. Government documents. Archived at

ancestry.com