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Beauty for Ashes These days, Connie travels and spends time in creative pursuits, like painting, which she picked up after taking classes in the '70s with artist Aaron Shikler at his New York studio. She splits her time between homes in New York, Dallas, and Arkansas. "I have an excellent life now — I try and stay positive," she tells me. Understandably, she doesn't like talking about the scandal that led to her legal troubles so many years ago. "Let's put it this way: I was getting a divorce," she says. "We had differences of opinion on our settlement. The judge gave everything to Kelly, and I just absolutely had a fit. And that's all I'm saying on a personal level." Instead, she talks about her brief, still-fond memories of the Westover Hills house. "It was quite magical. I especially liked it during the winter months, when all the fireplaces were going," Connie says. She'd recently seen pictures of the house and Brent Hull's video documenting the restoration on YouTube. The gilt panel over the Music Room's fireplace was added by a subsequent homeowner, she points out. "I removed the original panel in a fit of anger. I removed quite a few things from the house — all the rock-crystal chandeliers." Despite the changes, she thinks her former Fort Worth house has held up well. "It was exquisite when Michael Morison first completed it — he and Bill Taylor were at the top of their game," she says. "The house definitely had all of my touches; it was enjoyable, creating something of such great beauty." The scandal was hush-hush in Fort Worth, despite the fact that Connie Young was one of its most prominent citizens. 109