Leila Hedary, whose landmark restaurant brought Lebanese cuisine to Fort Worth, has died
Leila Hedary expressed her love and generosity for her family and customers through cooking her well-known Lebanese dishes in a restaurant on Camp Bowie that became a Fort Worth landmark.
Hedary died Dec. 6. She was 81.
Three of Hedary’s daughters, Christine, Clara and Liliane Garza, shared fond memories of their mother.
Christine Hedary said their mother always cooked and gave food to others.
“She was always making food and shoving it in to anyone’s hands,” Clara Hedary said. “If you can imagine the big Italian families where the mother wants everyone to eat, it is very similar in the Lebanese culture. They want people to eat.”
Coming to Fort Worth
Leila Michel Bazourji Hedary was born in Beirut on Oct. 5, 1943. She married Antoine in 1957. The couple ran two successful restaurants in Beirut, but the family fled the country in 1975 during the Lebanese Civil War. Antoine died in April.
Christine Hedary said their parents wanted to go to Brazil, but they needed to go to a country where they could get visas quickly.
The Hedarys settled in Fort Worth at the urging of their uncle, George Hedary, who came with the intention of becoming a pilot, but he ended up repairing foreign cars, the sisters recalled.
In 1976, the family opened Hedary’s Lebanese Pizza on White Settlement Road, but they missed their homeland and returned to Lebanon, but the ongoing civil war drove them back to Fort Worth, Liliane Garza said.
They opened Hedary’s Lebanese Restaurant at 6323 Camp Bowie Blvd., where many came for the fresh Mediterranean dishes. The restaurant closed when Leila retired in 2016, her daughters said.
Her nine children were raised in the restaurant, often working after school to wait tables or help prepare tabouli, pita bread and other dishes..
When Leilla Hedary wasn’t cooking or running the restaurants, she instilled the importance of going to church and prayed the Rosary twice a day, her daughters said.
But she also had fun chaperoning her daughters Liliane and Clara to Metallica concerts and other heavy metal shows. They recalled how their mother dressed in leather from head to toe when she attended the concerts.
The family tradition of preparing Lebanese dishes still lives on at Hedary’s in Allen and Byblos Mediterranean Restaurant in the north side.
“My mother was so generous, so loving,” Clara Hedary said. “She was the center of our family. This is a loss for all of us.”
Survivors include children Joseph Hedary (Arlete), George Hedary (Elizabeth), Fanie Tabet (Mouhib), Marios Hedary, Christine Hedary, Mariz Khoury, Frank Hedary, Clara Hedary and Liliane Garza (Marcus), along with grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Visitation is 4 to 7 p.m. Dec. 19 at Laurel Land Funeral Home of Fort Worth, 7100 Crowley Road. The funeral is at 11 a.m. at Dec. 20 at Our Lady of Lebanon Catholic Church, 719 University Place, Lewisville. A reception is scheduled for 3 p.m. Dec. 20 at Byblos Mediterranean Restaurant, 1406 N. Main St.
Donations can be made to Our Lady of Lebanon Catholic Church.
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 11:31 AM.