Pat Summerall's Wife Takes Metroplex XLV MVP

The wife of famed broadcaster Pat Summerall fell through her attic ceiling early Friday morning and still managed to throw a private party for 100 that night.

“She came off the injured reserve list in a hurry,” says Kaye Burkhardt, who arranged the book-signing fete at the Summeralls’ home in Southlake, a Fort Worth suburb.

It all started when a major pipe froze predawn Friday , flooding four downstairs rooms of the Summerall estate.

Cheri called a plumber, went into the attic to turn off the water and promptly fell through the ceiling. She landed in the exercise room. Remarkably, she was hobbled but not put out of commission.

Burkhardt and her crew at Dallas Fan Fares Inc. worried that they’d need to change venues. The Summeralls’ home was in disarray, and their quarter-mile driveway needed plowing so that mini-buses could get to the doorstep.

But Cheri marshaled forces and reconnoitered her home, while Dallas Fan Fares worked out logistics to get folks there from downtown without a hitch.

“It was one of the most beautiful events I’ve ever attended,” says Burkhardt.

Dozens of events have come off despite the lousy weather thanks to communal effort, she says. “All of the vendors in town have worked so hard because they know that North Texas is going to take this bad weather rap. They’re doing their utmost to offset that.”