Fashion designer who founded after-school program dies

Apr. 4—She was an accomplished New York fashion designer and entrepreneur whose clothing lines were sold in hundreds of stores throughout the country, and then later she launched a program to help Santa Fe kids improve at school, tennis and life.

For many, these endeavors might seem a universe apart, but to Eleanor Brenner, they fell into the category of enabling people to be their best selves.

Brenner, who co-founded First Serve New Mexico, died of cancer Sunday. She was 89.

She left an imprint on the fashion world by being one of the first to craft practical office wear for women. But her most salient legacy will be a 12-court tennis and after-school tutoring complex off Rodeo Road.

"Mom was a creative genius," said Tony Brenner, 65. "Creativity defined her life in every dimension. We're all devastated by the loss, but hope to continue in her footsteps with her legacy."

Construction is under way for the joint First Serve New Mexico and Forked Lightning Racquet Club, which is scheduled to be finished by mid-2024. The $12 million complex will be near the Genoveva Chavez Community Center and Santa Fe County Fairgrounds.

Scott and Kimberley Sheffield agreed to pay the full cost of building the facility and to funnel some of the proceeds from private members to First Serve.

The collaboration began when Kimberley Sheffield encountered a First Serve instructor at a local tennis court in 2018. Sheffield was impressed watching the kids in the program play.

At first, the couple was going to cover half the cost but later decided to foot the entire bill. They bought an 8.9-acre property from the Northern New Mexico Horseman's Association and donated it to First Serve.

Tony Brenner believes the Sheffields were taken by how passionate his mother was about her longtime dream of combining a place of learning with a tennis venue under the same roof, so kids didn't have to play at courts scattered throughout the area.

"She was truly grateful to them, and they were inspired by her," he said.

An estimated 1,100 kids from Santa Fe's public schools have gone through First Serve. Aside from teaching them tennis, it provides tutoring to all enrollees, whether they're struggling with their studies or are doing well but still have room to improve.

Last week, the U.S. Tennis Association honored First Serve with the National Junior Tennis and Learning chapter of the year award. In 2018, Brenner received an Excellence in Student Achievement award from the school district.

The new facility will create a hub for this charitable program to continue thriving, said Angelique Cook Lowry, First Serve's president.

"She's always been a visionary and could see this is something that should and could happen," Cook Lowry said. "I'm beyond words what she's been able to accomplish."

She added, it's unfortunate Eleanor Brenner didn't live long enough to see her dream fully materialize.

But Brenner was aware of that possibility and offered comforting words when they spoke last week, Cook Lowry said.

"She said I'll be sitting on your left shoulder, shouting in your ear, when you're there for the grand opening," Cook Lowry said. "So I am sure her spirit will be there."

After graduating from New York University, Brenner met her husband of 56 years, Richard, while working as a stock girl at Bloomingdale's in New York City.

She obtained a degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and began making clothing. In the late 1950s, her work caught the eye of a buyer at Henri Bendel, a high-end women's department store, which hired her as an in-house designer.

In 1968, she and her husband started Brenner Couture, a women's dress business. Leading department stores and women's boutiques carried the company's apparel.

They closed the business after a decade, which by then was worth $10 million in 1979 currency.

But a few years later, a restless Eleanor Brenner went back to work, designing business wear for working women, creating the lines Eleanor P. Brenner, EPB Easy Fit and TPR.

Roughly 400 stores sold the clothing lines, according to a 1989 New York Times article.

"Eleanor P. Brenner is beginning to believe she has succeeded on Seventh Avenue," the Times reporter wrote. "She has developed a faithful coterie of followers, including Joan Mondale, who write her fan letters, turn up at her fashion shows and buy her clothes."

The writer was referring to former Vice President Walter Mondale's wife.

In the article, Brenner described how much she loved making dresses.

"I have worked at a lot of things, from writing a cookbook to interior design, and I can't think of anything more satisfying than making clothes," Brenner said.

It was that year the Brenners decided to move to Santa Fe. She wrote a cookbook focused on salt-free recipes and took up painting as a pastime.

Then in 2003, she found her true second passion: helping kids to achieve their potential. The First Serve academy was born.

Tennis was a way to attract kids in a way that an academy focused solely on tutoring could not, she told The New Mexican.

Tony Brenner said his mother underwent a shift that pulled her way from fashion design and into her next calling. There will never be another like her, he said.

"While she's left a lasting legacy, her absence is a void that just can't be filled," he said.