October 11th was my mom’s birthday, and Nicola and I wanted to share a little about Rae Wakelin—the woman who started The Wakelin Team and whose career includes a few stories you might not have heard.
My mom was born in Cleveland in 1943. After high school, she applied to the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and was accepted. According to the story she has told us over the years, the school saw “Rae” and assumed she was a young man. Shortly before classes began, they realized their mistake and directed her to the all-women’s college campus in Greensboro, now UNC Greensboro.
While doing a little research for this tribute, I found her full name, Rae Decker Dearing, in the university’s yearbook. An earlier edition even names her as one of the organizers of a campus event called “Hats Off Day.” Apparently, getting people organized started early! She eventually left college to marry my dad.
Years later, Rae managed the gift store at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. As the museum prepared for its 1985 Renoir exhibition, she had an idea: reproduce Renoir’s artwork on the shopping bags so visitors would have something worth keeping alongside their purchases.
That has always been a favorite family story, and I recently found a newspaper article documenting the bags from that exhibition. We are still piecing together the history, but it is a great example of my mom’s creativity and eye for an opportunity. She later went to work for Prima Design, continuing her career in the gift industry. Due to the success of the gift bags, people in the industry loving called her “The Bag Lady.”
When my mom and dad moved to Naples, she brought that energy to real estate. She eventually founded The Wakelin Team, served as president of the Naples Women’s Council of Realtors, and spent years involved with the Naples Area Board of Realtors, NABOR.
For Nicola and me, the most meaningful part of that career is the time she spent helping Nicola get started. Rae mentored her for three years, sharing her knowledge and experience as Nicola learned the business. Those years working together helped build the foundation for the team we have today.
It is easy to get caught up in the next listing, showing or closing and forget to recognize how it all began. My mom’s birthday felt like a good opportunity to pause and say thank you. Her leadership in business, her love for her family and the way she supported Nic, Natalie, Riley, my dad and my sister Liz set a standard that Nic and I try to honor daily.
Happy birthday to my mom, Rae, with love and appreciation from Nicola and me.
