Eulogizing ‘Realtor To The Stars’
Linda Stein remembered here as a ‘great character’
(11/15/2007) The Manhattan real estate agent who police theorize was bludgeoned to death in her city apartment on Oct. 30 with a piece of exercise equipment was an habitué of the East End, closing the occasional multimillion-dollar deal here for one of the luminaries she counted among her friends and acquaintances. Linda Stein brokered the sale of Eothen, the storied Warhol estate in Montauk, and handled the listing of Peter Beard’s nearby oceanfront compound, which is still on the market at $26 million.
Ms. Stein was chiefly involved in the difficult business of co-op sales for high profile clients in New York City. But, according to Dottie Herman, the president and chief operating officer of Prudential Douglas Elliman, for which Ms. Stein worked, “she was very involved in East Hampton and Amagansett, because she was connected to basically the entertainment business, and a lot of her clients were out there.”
“I worked out [a plan] with her [that] every year she would be in the Hamptons,” Ms. Herman said. “That was deliberately done.” Ms. Stein’s was a familiar face at Prudential’s Bridgehampton and East Hampton offices, and her boisterous personality made her popular with the other agents.
Tina Fredericks, the doyenne of East Hampton realty, sold Eothen — a glamorous address on Old Montauk Highway, where millionaires and rock stars once gathered en masse to howl at the moon — to Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, his business partner, back in 1971. Ms. Fredericks called Ms. Stein “a very close friend” of Mr. Morrissey’s. “Paul let her stay in one of the cottages at the Montauk estate quite often.”
Those who knew Ms. Stein said that, even on a summer weekend when everyone else was relaxing, Ms. Stein was consumed by her career. “It was a 24/7 thing. She never stopped, it was always on her mind,” said Ms. Herman, who described her as both an “icon” and a friend.
Ms. Stein had battled breast and brain cancer in recent years. “She was ill, but real estate kept her alive,” Ms. Herman said. “She was supposed to have a surgery once, and she said ‘No, no, no, I can’t have it until September. I’ve got to be out in the Hamptons.’ ”
Stuart Kreisler, an owner of the Laundry Restaurant on Pantigo Road in East Hampton, was another longtime friend. “One thing that I think was incredible about her was that she kept a happy face on during a very tough battle that she had with cancer,” Mr. Kreisler said. “She didn’t take advantage of the fact she wasn’t well enough to do business. She was quite a businesswoman.”
Mr. Kreisler called Ms. Stein “a caricature of herself, one of the great characters.” He said she would often join him and his wife at her favorite table at the Laundry, near the fireplace.
Before Ms. Stein made her name in real estate, she had a career in the music business. She was once co-manager of the Ramones, with her former husband, Seymur Stein, the founder of Sire Records. Along the line she developed a taste for success, and quickly propelled herself to the top of the realty trade, assembling an impressive client list that included the likes of Elton John, Angelina Jolie, Billy Joel, Madonna, and Sting. She is reported to have dubbed herself “broker to the stars.”
But Ms. Fredericks, a competitor, disputed that the title. “I’d heard of me as the broker to the stars,” Ms. Fredericks said, bringing a hint of levity to a very sad affair. (Ms. Fredericks’s annual advertisement in the program of the Hamptons International Film Festival displays a laundry list of notable clients.)
But Steven Gaines, a writer and resident of Wainscott who first befriended Ms. Stein in 1994, said that her reputation was indisputable. “She was a big personality and loomed large in the life of everyone she knew,” said Mr. Gaines, who devoted a chapter in his 2005 book, “The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan,” to Ms. Stein’s story.
“She rented a house here and loved the Hamptons dearly,” he said. “It was one of her favorite places in the world.”
Ms. Stein’s body was found in her Fifth Avenue apartment on Oct. 30. Natavia S. Lowery, her personal assistant, has been charged with second-degree murder after allegedly admitting to police that she beat her boss with a “yoga stick” during an argument earlier that day. (It is not clear yet if Ms. Lowery’s confession will be admissible in court; several New York City news sources have reported her claim that it was coerced.)
Mr. Kreisler said that, if Ms. Lowery indeed was responsible, he couldn’t speculate what could have made her snap. “Who knows when somebody gets road rage?” He asked. “It’s terrible when anybody succumbs to such a tragic ending.”
But at the very least, he said, “Linda lead a pretty full life.”
“We’re going to miss her, and the industry is going to miss her,” Ms. Herman said. “But she definitely did leave a mark.”