Jean Remington Hollander was born in 1909 in Brooklyn, New York and was raised and educated in Freeport, New York on Long Island. Always a hard worker, Jean moved to New York City after graduating from high school and started her career as a model and salesperson in a New York City fashion house and actively volunteered with the Red Cross during World War II.
Dedicated to Baseball
After marrying Tom Yawkey in 1944, Jean dedicated her life to their ownership of the Boston Red Sox and to improving the communities in which she and Tom lived, ensuring a legacy that both employees and fans would be proud of. Jean’s love for baseball was pure and passionate, and she wanted to share all that was good about the game with all those she touched. She faithfully attended nearly every Red Sox home game and in the spirit of giving, made baseball accessible to countless Boston youth by providing gloves, bats, and balls to amateur programs around the City of Boston. Following her husband’s death in 1976, Jean Yawkey became the majority owner and general partner of the Boston Red Sox and followed Tom’s wishes and objectives regarding the management of the team. Jean knew that Tom always strove to produce a team that Red Sox fans would be proud to call their own. Over the twenty-five years that Jean Yawkey ran the Boston Red Sox, the team won more games than any of the other teams in baseball, aside from the New York Yankees. Jean became a Director of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and holds the distinction of being the first woman ever elected to serve on the Hall of Fame’s board. In honor of her role in baseball, Jean has a place of pride at the Museum as a part of the permanent exhibit, “Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball.”
Dedicated to Others
Jean and Tom Yawkey shared a strong connection over their passion for helping others. In her own right, Jean was well known as a private and generous person, who gave freely of her time and money to those in need. Jean had a long association with the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, serving as both a Trustee and Chair of the Board. She was one of the founders of the Tara Hall Home for Boys in Georgetown, South Carolina and the Family Inn in Brookline, Massachusetts. She provided tuition scholarships to countless young men and women during her life, and actively supported a number of other humanitarian, educational, cultural, and athletic organizations. Jean and Tom Yawkey’s love for the communities they called home, and their quiet sense of responsibility for those in need, is captured in the careful steps they took to ensure that their legacy would live on through the work of the Yawkey Foundation. Through her direct involvement and active leadership during the last decade of her life, Jean Yawkey imprinted the Foundation with her own highly personal style of giving to fulfill her commitment to helping improve the lives of those in need. Jean Yawkey died in 1992.
