Jean R. Yawkey

Jean Remington Yawkey (January 24, 1909 – February 26, 1992) was the wife of Tom Yawkey and owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1976 to her death in 1992.

She was a native of Brooklyn, New York. As Jean Hollander, she grew up in Freeport, Long Island, and was a New York City fashion model for ten years before becoming Mrs. Tom Yawkey in 1944, in Georgetown, South Carolina.

Boston Red Sox

Mrs. Yawkey's husband, Tom, became owner and president of the Boston Red Sox in 1933. The family owned and operated the team for 59 years, with Mrs. Yawkey taking over as the team's president after her husband's death in 1976 and serving in that role until her own passing.

JRY Corporation

Mrs. Yawkey was chairwoman of the board of directors of the JRY Corporation, the majority owner and general partner of the Red Sox. In addition to attending virtually every home game, Mrs. Yawkey actively participated along with other JRY Corporation officers in management issues involving the team. Her attendance at Red Sox games was more than duty. She meticulously kept score in a custom-bound set of score cards.

Although Mrs. Yawkey's business adviser and presumptive heir, John Harrington, the president of the JRY Corporation, which holds the Yawkey Red Sox shares, was often mistaken for the real power behind the franchise, those close to the club insisted that Mr. Harrington was merely the prime minister and Mrs. Yawkey was always the queen.^[1]

Red Cross

During World War II, Mrs. Yawkey was active with the Red Cross. She had a long association with New England's famed Jimmy Fund/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as a Trustee and for a period as Chair of the Board. She was active in Tara Hall Home and School for Boys in South Carolina, and she was instrumental in the establishment of the Family Inn in Brookline, Massachusetts, a temporary home for families of patients undergoing transplant surgery in Boston area hospitals. She was also a Trustee of Yawkey Foundation I, which supports the 21,000 acre (85 km²) Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center, willed by her late husband, a dedicated conservationist, to the South Carolina Heritage Trust.

Scholarship funds

A firm believer in equal opportunity, Mrs. Yawkey and the Yawkey Foundations established scholarship funds at Yale University, Boston College, and Boston College High School, was a supporter of the Jackie Robinson Scholarship Program, and supported several other educational institutions to provide minority students and others with scholarship aid. Numerous humanitarian, educational, cultural and athletic activities, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, the Boston Park League, Boston Pops and Symphony Orchestras, Massachusetts General Hospital, John F. Kennedy Library, University of Massachusetts Boston, New England Aquarium, and the Boston Food Bank were also supported by Mrs. Yawkey and the Yawkey Foundations.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Mrs. Yawkey was a Director of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, holding the distinction of being the first woman ever elected to serve on the board of that baseball shrine. In 1991, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce inducted Mrs. Yawkey into the Academy of Distinguished Bostonians.

Death

Jean R. Yawkey died in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of 83.

Interesting fact

Jean Yawkey threw out the first pitch of Game 7 in the 1986 World Series at Shea Stadium along with Nelson Doubleday, Jr.

See also

• Boston Red Sox
• Red Sox Hall of Fame

References

1. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/27/sports/jean-r-yawkey-red-sox-owner-and-philanthropist-is-dead-at-83.html.  Missing or empty |title= (help)

Further reading

• "Milestones, Jan. 8, 1945: Married. Thomas Austin Yawkey", Time magazine, Monday, Jan. 08, 1945

External links

• Yawkey Foundations web site