A Treasured Collection

A TREASURED COLLECTION

Story by Anne McCready Heinen

Linda Davis and Bruce Williams turned to an expert architect and builder for their Boot Ranch home, finished in 2014. But for the warm, casually elegant interior, the couple confidently relied on their own taste and intuition, bringing in art and decor they had handpicked and enjoyed in previous homes in Houston, Del Mar, California, and Mountain Home, Texas.

The result is a comfortable, sophisticated 8,700-square foot house that showcases the couple’s beloved art and sports memorabilia collections, while also providing plenty of room for entertaining and relaxing.

“I wanted to bring in elements of the home we built in Houston because I loved what we had,” Davis says. During construction in Fredericksburg, “We were in California, and I’d be up at 6 a.m. with the time difference, on the phone and computer, because it was a labor of love. I like everything about the planning, building, and decorating of a home.”

Adds Williams, “Linda was hands-on through the whole project with the architect, Gary Williams (no relation), and the builder, Centurion Custom Homes. She was intimately involved with everything.”

Situated on 13 acres overlooking the sixth fairway of the Boot Ranch Golf Course, the home is clad in multicolored stone from the same Oklahoma quarry used for the couple’s Houston home. Strategically placed, large windows provide expansive views of the sky, Hill Country vistas that change with the season, and the golf course. Interior plaster walls are accented by hand-scraped, walnut-wood floors and substantial wooden beams and accent

arches. A main hallway is inlaid with six equal-arm wooden crosses in subtle yet prominent homage to White Cross Ranch, Davis’s family heritage, and to

the couple’s faith.

“We believe we’re here because God led us here, and He has a purpose for us being here,” Williams says, adding that their faith steered them to do a house blessing with their Houston pastor and friends that included planting scripture, Bibles, and prayers in the walls of the under-construction home.

The couple’s favorite scripture is Luke 10:27: “He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength

and with all your mind,’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Raised in California, Williams has lived in the Lone Star State since 1979. (“I got to Texas as fast as I could,” he says.) A former oil and gas company executive and an owner of the downtown Houston restaurant Irma’s Southwest, Williams is a devout member and supporter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Davis proudly hails from Midland. The couple met when both worked in the oil and gas industry in Houston in the 1980s—their home base until the

move to Fredericksburg, though in the intervening years they also got away from it all by spending time at their ranch in Mountain Home and their

ocean-view home in Del Mar. They recently sold both of those properties, opting to simplify their lives with the Boot Ranch home and a Hill Country ranch

that’s a 10-minute drive up the road. Their 1,700-square-foot guest house at Boot Ranch serves as home for Davis’s mother.

The pair’s collections include a select assortment of mostly-18th-century tortoiseshell cases and mirrors, informally grouped on a great room coffee table,

button by my bed and it turns off all the lights that we’ve programmed to turn off at nighttime.”

Williams’s sports memorabilia collection began, as so many do, with his childhood baseball cards. Today he has baseball, football, and basketball cards,

including a prized Michael Jordan rookie card, and fourteen signed baseball jerseys from select players, including Roger Clemens, Hank Aaron, and Nolan Ryan. More than 55 baseballs, many from key games, are signed by Hall of Fame players, including Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench. From the golf world, Willliams has collected 17 autographed Masters Tournament flags with signatures from greats like Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. Joe Montana and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown are among the signatories on 22 footballs. His collection also includes two basketballs and two football helmets.



Many items are displayed along the hallways, shelves, and walls of the lower-level game room and office, which also holds a beautifully crafted desk built by Williams’s father, as well as numbered LeRoy Neiman prints. His California roots led Williams to collect Neiman’s San Francisco 49ers football scenes, including the Joe Montana to Dwight Clark catch that beat the Dallas Cowboys for the 1982 NFC championship.

“Too Tall Jones (who played for the Cowboys) is in this print,” Williams says. “He was out here once for a golf tournament, and I asked him, ‘What happened on that catch?’ He was still mad about it all these years later.”

Williams encountered many players through his affiliation with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and as hegathered autographs, he asked each to

include a favorite scripture number on their jersey or pennant as well.

Community worship at Boot Ranch shows up in Haus Church, a gathering of the faithful who take turns hosting religious services at their homes, including

the couple’s. “We’ve had a number of local homeowners who God has raised up, both men and women, who give a message, and we pray, sing, and have church,” Williams says. He adds, “We get to wake up every morning and say, ‘God, what are we doing today?’ We’re very intentional about

using this home for God’s purposes and kingdom.”