Mary Kakas

In the mid-Nineties, Mary Kakas became chief executive officer of Edward F. Kakas & Sons, a company dating back to 1858. Raised in Boston, Kakas studied at Boston College and went on to work as a model with Maggie Inc., doing regional jobs for Clairol and other companies. Throughout her life, Kakas valued the power of style. During her first marriage to Joseph Berkeley, she put some of those lessons in poise to use, by starting the Mary Berkeley Charm School in Scituate, Mass. After that union ended in divorce in 1975, the following year she married G. Jordan Kakas Jr., whose family had owned Edward F. Kakas & Sons since 1858. As president of the fur company in the mid-Nineties, she added the title of chief executive officer — a first for the family-owned operation started in 1858. Housed in a four-story Newbury Street building, Kakas Furs was known for its Old World decor with dark wood paneling, antiques, custom-made tables and Oriental rugs. The 16,000-square-foot space included private fitting rooms, a design studio and production. Born in Boston to Irish parents, Kakas took to sewing her own clothes from mail-order patterns, a practice she kept up when she first became a mother herself. Slim and stylish, Kakas embraced fashion, as well as politics with great interest. On a campaign bus for Barack Obama, she once befriended a young man and unflinchingly offered her support, when he mentioned his own hopes for a political run. She was informed afterward that she had been chatting with Joseph Kennedy 3rd. In addition to her sons William Berkeley and Joe Berkeley, Kakas is survived by two brothers, Tom and Burt.