‘Unsung’ hero: Miami arts patron and former Vogue editor Linda Frankel dies

Linda Frankel, a South Florida arts patron, held many titles throughout her 79 years of life: Vogue fashion editor, department store marketing head, philanthropist, private pilot, museum benefactor, mother, grandmother.

To her younger sister, broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer, Linda was everything.

“She was my protector and my guide and my idol,” she said.

Linda died Jan. 18, just shy of her 80th birthday. She is survived by her sister, her husband of 57 years Dr. David Frankel, her adult sons Davey and Greg, and her four grandchildren, June, Vince, Ryder and Jasper. Her family held a private service over the weekend.

Along with her husband, Linda financially supported several South Florida arts organizations and museums, including The Wolfsonian - Florida International University, the Miami Book Fair, New World Symphony, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami City Ballet, and the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale. She was also a big supporter of United Way, a nonprofit network, her son Greg said. Her husband said he plans to create several scholarships in her name.

“What she really loved was art, music, design and seeing the world,” Sawyer said. “Absorbing the world.”

Though she was heavily involved in both fashion and arts in Miami throughout her life and career, her friends and family said she was modest and liked to keep a low profile.

“She was always very behind the scenes,” said Bonnie Clearwater, her friend and the NSU Art Museum director and chief curator. “Not one to be out front and get the recognition, but she was someone that was really important in making things happen culturally in South Florida.”

‘A quiet, inspirational character’

She was born Linda Lenora Sawyer in Louisville, Kentucky, where she grew up and was crowned Miss Kentucky in 1964. She remained loyal to her beloved hometown and supported the Sawyer Hayes Community Center, located in Louisville’s E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park, which was named after her father, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

She attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts and met her future husband David in Boston, where he attended Harvard Business School. The couple later moved to New York City where David worked on Wall Street and Linda worked as an associate editor at Vogue under legendary editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland.

They moved to Miami in the early ‘70s, and Linda got a job as the head of marketing for Burdines, the Florida department store that later was bought out by Macy’s.

At the time, department store catalogs were straightforward images of clothing and products. But Linda took a more creative route, said Behna Gardner, a longtime friend and photographer.

With her Vogue experience under her belt, Linda took inspiration from editorial fashion photo shoots. She hired Gardner as an art director and the two brought top fashion photographers and models — like Bruce Weber and Christy Turlington — to Miami to shoot fun, fashion-forward images for Burdines’ catalogs and reports. Gardner credited Linda with branding Burdines as “the” Florida store.

“We were definitely ahead of our time,” Gardner said.

Linda was “at the forefront of modernizing and revolutionizing the catalog industry,” Greg said. As a child, he remembers getting sunburnt on Miami Beach during photo shoots. As a high schooler, he begged his mom to let him skip school while supermodel Elle Macpherson was taking photos at their house. Linda said no, but she did get him an autographed Sports Illustrated magazine with Macpherson on the swimsuit cover.

Her sons remember her as a loving mother who exposed them to the arts, creativity and music. She had a “beautiful sense of quiet control,” Davey said. Many looked up to her as a role model who never had to raise her voice to get her point across.

“She was a quiet, inspirational character,” Davey said. “She’s like an unsung, unknown superhero with very interesting powers.”

Linda would wait in line at 5 a.m. to get her sons and their friends concert tickets to see Michael Jackson and Billy Joel, Greg said.

“[The concerts were] packed with smoke and half the time I couldn’t even breathe or whatever,” Greg said. “But I’m so thankful that she did that and exposed us at a young age to all that amazing music and all those incredible experiences.”

Linda was also a bit of a thrill seeker, her sons said. She loved motorcycle trips with her husband, got her own pilot license and jumped out of airplanes.

One time, when Greg was a college student in California, he and his mother, who was in her mid-50s, went to a fair where there was a big crane set up for bungee jumping. Linda was intrigued, Greg was not.

“Well, I’m gonna do it!” Linda said. As she filled out the waivers, Greg begrudgingly joined her.

‘Impossibly gifted’

Linda, of course, was also exceptionally stylish. She didn’t care for flashy accessories or outfits, her sons said. Instead, she loved unique finds, like funky, artisan jewelry. And she wasn’t shy about giving her sister Diane some loving fashion advice.

Sawyer used to find notes Linda taped to the clothes hanging in her closet, like “Do not ever wear this again” and “What were you thinking?”

But fashion wasn’t Linda’s only talent. “She was the most impossibly gifted person I’ve ever met,” Sawyer said.

When the sisters tried horseback riding, Linda was a natural. Meanwhile, Diane’s horse threw her off and bit her, she said. Linda was a talented gardener, writer and dancer. She was so gifted at playing piano, her teacher wanted her to become a professional concert pianist. She was a math whiz with a knack for water skiing. She could give you the best advice on mending a broken heart, organizing a board meeting and picking the best outfit for the movies, her sister said.

“Her greatest gift was her kindness,” Sawyer said. “Her instinct for trying to make everyone else feel they were the champion, they could do it. And to make sure that they soared.”

Gardner said she felt Linda’s kindness right away when they first met in 1974. Her husband got a job at the University of Miami medical school where Linda’s husband was taking classes to become a doctor. They were both in the market to buy a sailboat, so a mutual friend connected them.

Gardner and Linda hit it off right away. They were the exact same age, they attended sister colleges, their sons were born a month apart and they shared the same interests and hobbies. They bought the sailboat together.

“We just had an instant bond,” Gardner said. “We were kind of like soul sisters.”

Linda and Gardner went on to play tennis, row, fly in airplanes, work and raise their kids together. Linda’s death was a great loss, Gardner said, and she cherishes the memories they shared.

“She was really such a special, unique person. Caring, giving,” she said. “I can’t say enough.”

This story was produced with financial support from The Pérez Family Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.