In Memory of Michael Markley

Michael Mark Markley was born on December 8, 1946 in Rogers, Arkansas where his parents were living temporarily before moving back to Texas. Michael’s father, Robert, was in the Air Force and had served in World War II, and his mother, Billie Jean, was a homemaker.

His childhood was an itinerant one due to his father’s military career, being stationed around Texas as well as in New Mexico, Colorado, and Washington, DC. For Michael, and his sister Mary Jane who is 13 years his junior, this meant a new school every year or two and the challenges of establishing friendships and feeling connected to a place.

After graduating in 1964 from Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth, where he spent summers working backstage at Casa Mañana, Michael and his family settled permanently in Austin, TX. Michael enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin where he earned undergraduate degrees in Government and in Radio, Television, and Film, reflecting his lifelong interest in both law and entertainment. He also studied Russian and was captivated by Russian history and by Eastern Europe in the aftermath of World War II, interests maintained throughout his life.

While in college he worked at the UT public television station, KLRN, soaking up behind-the-camera knowledge and experience. The summer after he graduated in 1968, he was awarded an internship at WFAA in Dallas and was looking forward to a career in television when he received a letter of acceptance from the University of Texas School of Law. Ever practical, and concluding that being a lawyer would likely offer a more stable and lucrative career than TV, he enrolled. Michael graduated in 1972 after working his way through law school by wiring homes in Austin’s many new subdivisions. He passed the Bar Exam in the fall of 1972 and remained a member of the State Bar of Texas for the rest of his life.

Michael possessed an entrepreneurial spirit and passion for business early on but developed these characteristics fully when he opened his own entertainment law practice in Austin while simultaneously renting lighting equipment for live performances throughout the Southwest, operating a home building business, working as a lighting designer, and owning a chain of western boot stores whose distinctive inventory he designed.

While living in Austin, he was a member of Covenant United Methodist Church. During those years, the values he lived by were solidified: an unshakeable faith in God, a strong work ethic, confidence in the rule of law and in free markets, treating people with respect and loyalty while behaving with humility and grace.

Michael’s love of classical music, dating back to when his grade school class was taken to hear performances by the Austin Symphony, was linked to his love of theater and especially of ballet and Broadway musicals. Since high school, when he had learned how to run a lighting control board for the musicals performed in the school’s auditorium, he was fascinated by the backstage aspects of live theater. For several years he was in charge of lighting for the Austin Civic Ballet and other dance troupes in the city.

After the death of his nephew, Nicholas, who spent but a few days gracing this earth, Michael took stock of his life and decided that it was time to follow his clients to Los Angeles and to start anew. It was there that he met Meril Benjamin, a fellow lawyer and lifelong Methodist, at Sherman Oaks United Methodist Church where Michael was undertaking sweeping renovations to a house of worship that has just celebrated its 75th birthday.

Besides a shared faith and profession, Meril and Michael had interests in common such as rollerblading, classical music, medieval tapestries, and shopping. Evenings at the Hollywood Bowl became their favorite outing. These featured gourmet picnics from Gelson’s while listening to the Los Angeles Philharmonic punctuated by police sirens, car alarms, and empty wine bottles rolling down the stone steps.

While getting to know one another, Meril and Michael discovered several uncanny coincidences signaling that they were meant for each other. For example, Rev. Harry Foster of Covenant United Methodist Church in Austin had once belonged to Meril’s Methodist church, St. Mark’s, in Broomall, PA. Inspired by its pastor, Rev. Gerald Crowell, Harry decided to retire from the U.S. Army and attend seminary, eventually ending up in Texas. In another coincidence, Meril and Michael had both studied Spanish in public school using the Audio-Lingual Method of instruction. From the textbook’s photos and description of Antoni Gaudí’s Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, they each formed a lifelong obsession to visit it and they finally did in 2013. On a more mundane level, they had each given their mothers the identical make and model of wristwatch in the years before they met. When they did meet, Meril and Michael were driving black Nissans, although not the same model. Throughout their married life their interests meshed and complemented one another.

When Meril was offered a two-year assignment in Paris, France, Michael proposed marriage. They wed on December 1, 1990 at Sherman Oaks United Methodist Church. After honeymooning in Maui, they moved to France.

Their two-year stay in the City of Light proved life-changing for Michael on many levels. When his promised work permit failed to materialize, Michael threw himself into learning the French language, training to cook like a native, and discovering the world of French antique furniture.

He was captivated by heavily carved solid wood items with religious themes, produced in the wake of the public’s enthusiastic response to Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s renovation of the gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris in the mid-19th century. At first he bought Gothic Revival pieces to furnish their apartment but always kept finding more and better objects. Enthralled, he determined to start importing and selling such items in the U.S. once the assignment in Paris ended.

After returning to the U.S., Meril and Michael spent another year in Los Angeles but concluded that they wanted to live closer to Michael’s widowed mother and to his sister and her family in Texas and so moved to Houston in late 1993. They bought a home in The Woodlands in 1994, the first master-planned community in the United States. Michael was excited to live in the place he had written a paper about in law school, anticipating many of the thorny legal issues to be confronted in the next fifty years by this sprawling development blending corporate ownership and residential housing. Using skills acquired before and during his ownership of a homebuilding business, Michael undertook an extensive renovation of their twenty year old house. He felt privileged to have been elected twice to The Woodlands Residential Design Review Committee charged with maintaining the community’s standards.

During their time in France, Michael had the chance to indulge his love of cooking and acquire skills that seemed to be passed on genetically among the French. His favorite meals involved duck but he also mastered many a chocolate dessert, to Meril’s delight. At home in Texas, he enjoyed entertaining and cooking for friends. Never one to be hemmed in by the exacting measurements and instructions of a recipe, Michael enjoyed replicating dishes he had savored during his travels. That treatment for his final illness led to a loss of his sense of taste was for him the cruelest of fates.

In Texas, Meril continued her career as an international tax lawyer while Michael inaugurated the antique import business he had dreamed of in Paris. Around that time the Internet was new and the idea of selling on line all over the world intrigued him, as he wouldn’t be tied down to an expensive bricks-and-mortar business. “No one will buy antique furniture on line,” he was warned, “you have to be able to touch and feel it.” He persevered nonetheless and succeeded in creating mmarkley.com, still the top-ranked website in the U.S. dedicated to Gothic Revival furniture and ceramics from France.

On a daily basis, Michael encountered people from all walks of life who loved this style of furniture and became his loyal customers, from Hollywood stars to Country Western singers, titans of industry to Catholic priests and tattoo artists. Some pieces found their way into movies and TV shows, and have been used in ballet and opera productions.

Michael loved accompanying Meril on trips to Europe when she was speaking at conferences or attending meetings of the boards on which she served. Spiritual places encountered on these journeys, and which he found especially affecting, were Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, the church of Santa Sabina in Rome, the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and the Cathedral of Christ Church College in Oxford. Their vacation in Scotland was Michael’s favorite foreign trip, spurring him to wonder how his ancestors could ever have left such a beautiful land. Meril preserved memories from many of these trips in her Travel Articles for the Wine Society of Texas.

Closer to home, they enjoyed traveling to hear performances in the U.S. by Meril’s friend and former classmate from Vienna, Wolfgang Holzmair, and of Meril’s favorite opera, The Magic Flute, when Albina Shagimuratova was starring as the Queen of the Night. Their most treasured of Albina’s performances turned out to be by the LA Opera in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 2009, the theater where Meril and Michael had their first date some twenty years earlier.

Owing to their frequent travels, Meril and Michael had concluded that they should not have a dog, despite wanting one, because it would be unfair to leave it for long periods at a kennel. All that changed when Michael encountered by accident Mischa, a Schnauzer-Poodle mix, who was up for adoption. The puppy approached him, tail wagging enthusiastically, and instantly fell asleep in his lap. There was no turning back. Mischa was adopted and loved for over 15 years. He never had to stay at a kennel because friends were always happy to have him when the Markleys were traveling. Mischa’s later years included Margaux, a Maltese-Poodle rescue who also targeted Michael as the person she wanted to be with. She remained inseparable from him for the rest of his life. Mischa and Margaux, along with numerous dogs in the neighborhood, sensed that Michael had a kind heart and they adored being around him just as much as he welcomed their affection.

Throughout his life, his businesses, and his travels, Michael was possessed of boundless curiosity and loved to get to know people by asking them lots of questions. Perhaps he might even spur someone to take a risk and follow a dream, as he had, and which had made all the difference in his life. In these conversations, Michael deployed a well-developed sense of humor, convinced that finding something to laugh about, frequently at his own expense, bound people more closely together.

These aspects of Michael’s personality shone through markedly after he was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer in December of 2022 and given less than a year to live. That he made it to 19 months is a tribute to his determination and his faith, touching the lives of many who came into contact with him during this time. The twinkle never left his eye as he sought out things to chuckle about, even as the end approached, confident that his faith would sustain him.

Michael and Meril were fortunate to make a final trip to Paris in the fall of 2023 with friends Julie and Dave Wende from their days at Sherman Oaks United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. It became a chance to say good-by to French friends and to recall treasured aspects of the city where Meril and Michael began their married life together. Michael had started out as the accidental tourist but then had made France his home and later the center of his business activities as a stalwart Francophile.

Thanks to the ministrations of Heart to Heart Hospice, Michael passed away peacefully in his home on July 27, 2024 with his beloved wife Meril and their little dog Margaux by his side. In true Texas fashion, his last meal had been a lifelong treat — a chocolate malt from Dairy Queen.

In addition to Meril, Michael is survived by his sister, Mary Markley, as well as by her sons Christopher Wright Gardner and Jake Wright, and their families. Michael leaves behind cherished friends in Texas and elsewhere who enriched his life beyond measure.

A memorial service was held on Friday, September 6 at 1 pm in the Robb Chapel of The Woodlands Methodist Church with Bishop Emeritus the Reverend Dr. Robert E. Hayes, Jr. officiating. Use these links to see a video of the service and the program (with page listing the music and performers).