Marketing / Cotillion Director

Judy McPhail has always loved dance and had the unique opportunity of serving as captain of the world’s first drill team, the Greenville Flaming Flashes. Greenville High School PE teacher, Gussie Nell Davis, created the concept of the drill team and later went on to found the incomparable Kilgore Rangerettes. After earning a BS in English and education from The University of Texas, Judy worked in administration and telecommunications while rearing her two children, Brady Moore and Amanda Moore Oelrich.

In 1973 Judy was introduced to SMSD when her three year-old daughter Amanda took dance class with Miss Trish. Today, two of Judy’s grandchildren, Millie Oelrich and Murray Moore, and three great-grandchildren, James Smith and Lucy and Jack McComas, attend SMSD. In 1998, on a date with Larry McPhail (father of Edwina McPhail Worley), Judy attended an SMSD dance recital. Surprised to discover the studio offered adult tap, she enrolled the next week and has been a dedicated tapper at SMSD since. Her other interests are pickleball, tennis, entertaining, and Mah Jongg. She and Larry feel blessed that most of their family live in Austin.

Judy serves as Director of Marketing and Advertising at SMSD. She also does project management and design, as well as works with Larry on QuickBooks and other business and financial matters. Judy headed up the renovation of The Dancer’s Den boutique a few years ago. Her proudest accomplishment is having created SMSD’s Cotillion Austin-Style program in 2005. This program teaches manners, etiquette and social skills to pre-teen boys and girls. An estimate of 1000 students have gone through the program, where they have learned lifelong skills.  (Grandson Max Oelrich assists in Cotillion classes this fall.)