Zena Rucker

At first, they used it as a weekend getaway while they lived in Dallas. Five years later, they moved in full-time to raise their three children.

The Ruckers added to their land holding over time to amass about 80 acres stretching from Southlake Boulevard on the north to just north of Old Union Elementary School on the south, and from Carroll Avenue on the east to the edge of Timarron on the west.

Like many families who relocated to Southlake before the boom of the 1990s, the Ruckers were drawn by lifestyle. Bill Rucker was a pilot for American Airlines, so proximity became important once Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport opened in 1974.

At one point, the Ruckers had Hereford cattle and a couple of palominos, but livestock was not a consuming interest. Instead, they have two aircraft hangars and a runway on the property. Like Bill, a bomber pilot in World War II, Zena loves flying and has a pilot's license. Their two sons, Mike and Dooley, are also pilots.

Rucker continually fields offers from developers and builders who are eager to buy her valuable, centrally located land. She has resisted but recently decided to build a commercial office building with her granddaughter on a piece of her property along Southlake Boulevard.

"If someone is going to build something on my land, it is going to be me," she said.

Zucker is known as a feisty, opinionated and outspoken on a variety of subjects. She is a staunch supporter of women's rights and served on the national board of the National Organization of Women, and supports solar energy and humanitarian causes. She is a lifelong Democrat who has pictures of former President Bill Clinton and former Texas Gov. Ann Richards hanging on the walls of her office.

Yet she was an advocate for gas drilling in Southlake and was deeply disappointed that a proposed well site was never dug on her land.

A former owner of a flight school and a motorcycle dealership, she maintains that women can do anything that men can do.

"She really is an excellent role model for young women," said Debra Edmondson, a longtime friend and former Southlake City Council member.

These days, Rucker isn't happy with the direction Southlake is taking.

Too much development, she says, and parks with sports complexes rather than open spaces for relaxing, picnicking and enjoying nature.

She also is unhappy with a development being built on the 60-acre tract to the east.

"Mr. (C.A.) Prade told me that he wanted that land left alone as a nature preserve," she said. "But no, the property is too valuable for that, I've been told. That's why I will never sell. I will keep, keep, keep."

Prade, who died a few years ago, owned property to the east, at Southlake Boulevard and Carroll Avenue.

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