Linda Bean is the heir to Maine outdoor retailer LL Bean, who founded her own company primarily to sell lobster rolls and other famous Maine products, such as seaside rentals, and political He was an outspoken conservative in a state with a tradition of supporting independents. She passed away on Saturday. She was 82 years old.
An obituary, which did not mention her cause or place of death, was posted by the funeral home in charge of her burial.
Ms. Bean was the granddaughter of Leon Leonwood Bean. Leon Leonwood Bean is a retailer of rubber-soled duck boots and plaid flannel shirts that range from hunter to preppy, making the company a national catalog juggernaut and one of Maine's largest employers. It became the driving force for growth.
As one of about 30 heirs who sit on the board of privately held companies, Mr. Bean has used his wealth to support right-wing causes and politicians. He collects paintings and property related to Wyeth artists. In his mid-60s, he started as an entrepreneur.
In January 2017, the Federal Election Commission found that Bean's donations of tens of thousands of dollars to the Trump-supporting group Making America Great Again LLC exceeded the $5,000 limit for individual donors. announced. Anti-Trump groups threatened to boycott L.L. Bean. The company distanced itself from Ms. Bean but did not remove her from her board of directors.
The company Linda Bean founded in 2007, Linda Bean Perfect Main, began with the purchase of a commercial wharf to feed lobster boats and purchase catch in the picturesque village of Port Clyde, where she made her home. . Her ambition is to sell large quantities of lobster under her own name, much like Frank Perdue branded chicken, and to send Maine lobster to Canada, which Bean considers a socialist country, for processing. The purpose was to prevent them from being sent to
She admitted that marketing, not lobster, is her forte.
“I love working with words,” she told the New York Times in 2009, reflecting on menu items like Linda Bean's Port Clyde Lobster Stew and Linda Bean's Lobster Cuddler. was circulated. The name was a nod to her favorite lobster claws served with butter. “You know you're eating something juicy, not something scary, like chicken tenders,” she said.
Mr. Bean went on to acquire other lobster wharves in nearby Tennant Harbor and Vinalhaven Island. She also opened a lobster processing plant in Rockland and founded a restaurant chain with locations in Portland, Maine, Camden, Freeport (near the L.L. Bean flagship) and Delray Beach, Florida.
In 2016, in what was seen as a consumer-friendly coup, Bean and her colleagues succeeded in getting the Maine lobster fishery certified as sustainable by the independent Marine Stewardship Council. (Certification was suspended in 2020 due to the impact of lobster fishing on whales.)
In less than 10 years, Bean alone accounted for about 5.5 percent of Maine's lobster catch, according to the Bangor Daily News. She became “one of the most controversial figures in the state,” the newspaper said.
Ms. Bean's conservative politics were well known from her two congressional campaigns, her support of far-right social policies, and her feud with the state's Republican establishment, which she considered too moderate.
She was a longtime board member of the Eagle Forum Educational and Legal Defense Fund, a conservative organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly. Ms. Bean raised money for a successful campaign to defeat the state's 1984 Equal Rights Amendment, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex. In 2005, she supported a campaign to repeal a state law prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people, but this effort failed.
According to the FEC, Ms. Bean donated $150,000 to a committee supporting Mr. Trump in February 2021, shortly after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Linda Lorraine Bean was born on April 28, 1941 in Portland, Maine. Her father, Charles Warren, was a designer of leather and canvas products at her father's company. Her mother, Hazel, was at her pool typing on L.L. Bean when her June (Turner) Bean met Charles Bean, so she later became a member of L.L. Bean's board of directors. I did.
Linda Bean graduated from Antioch College in 1963 with degrees in business and accounting. That same year, she married James Raymond Clark. Her second marriage to Vern E. Jones in 1975 ended with his death in 1985. She was married for a third time to Donald L. Folkers from 1990 to 2007.
She is survived by her sister, Diana Bean; three sons from her first marriage, Nathan, Jason and Kevin Clark; and four grandchildren.
Ms. Bean was originally a Kennedy Democrat, but said her second husband, Mr. Jones, pushed her to the right. Mr. Jones was a farmer nearly 40 years older and resented the power local government had over his property.
In 1988, she ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for Congress in Maine's 1st Congressional District, which includes the state's southeast coast. Four years later, she won the primary for the seat, but lost the general election to Democratic incumbent Thomas Andrews in a landslide.
Bean's love for Port Clyde extends beyond the lobster business. She bought much of its waterfront, including Port Clyde's general store, Dip's Restaurant, and two inns, as well as a house that she converted into a vacation rental.
Her enthusiasm extended to three generations of artists: North Carolina Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and Jamie Wyeth. Their realistic works are strongly connected to the people and landscapes of the St George Peninsula, including Port Clyde, and to the isolated islands. In addition to collecting their artefacts, after her death Ms Bean had built a library in Port Clyde, the Wyeth Reading Room, to house books about her family. She also purchased a townhouse in Wilmington, Delaware, complete with a honeymoon bed, where Wyeth, North Carolina, lived after her 1906 marriage.
Ms. Bean's aggressive acquisitions in Port Clyde didn't necessarily sit well with local residents, nor did her corporate branding of the Maine coastal lifestyle. Her neighbors went to court to stop the library, arguing that it was too large for the site and would cause too much traffic, but she won the lawsuit.
She defended the investment in Port Clyde and neighboring villages as protecting a cherished way of life.
“Most people retire in their mid-60s, but I'm staying in St. George for another 10 years, valuing our community and preserving the lobster, art, and tourist hospitality that gives this peninsula its special vitality.” Because I want to help make that happen,” she said. she said in a 2017 interview with the Bangor Daily News.
But in recent years, she has stepped back from running the business.
In September 2023, a fire at the Dip Net Restaurant destroyed the restaurant and two other waterfront businesses, a general store and an art gallery, destroying the work of North Carolina Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. The fire also damaged the offices of the company that operates the Monhegan Island Boat Line.
Bean called the damage a “devastating blow” and vowed to rebuild as soon as possible.