Carmen L. Collins, a model who reinvented herself as a real estate broker, dead at 69

She appeared in ads for Fashion Fair cosmetics, Jewel Food Stores, Greyhound buses and Illinois Bell, in Mademoiselle and Ebony and on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’

By Maureen O'Donnell  Nov 12, 2021, 5:30am CST

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Carmen Collins “had a very versatile fashion look that could do high fashion or could do the everyday person,” photographer Tom Styrkowicz said.

Carmen Collins’ face could be seen almost everywhere in Chicago in the 1970s.

Her sleek and polished beauty was the highlight of high-fashion magazine spreads for clothing, makeup and hair-care products. She appeared in Mademoiselle and waved to the crowds from a float in the 1975 Bud Billiken Parade.

Like other often-booked models, Ms. Collins had the ability to metamorphose. She could tone down her elegance for ads for things like groceries or telephones.

Ms. Collins, 69, who had lung cancer, died Oct. 21 at Avondale Estates nursing care in Elgin, according to her son Christopher.

Carmen Collins at her graduation from Harlan High School.

Carmen Collins.

She was a student at Harlan High School when she decided modeling would be her ticket to make money and see the world.

“That’s what she wanted to do even before we graduated,” her friend Alice Germane said.

Young Carmen was inspired by Beverly Johnson, the first Black model on the cover of Vogue, in 1974.

The year before, Ms. Collins registered with the Shirley Hamilton agency on Michigan Avenue. At the height of her career, she made $150 an hour, said Lynne Hamilton, co-owner of the agency.

“She was so professional and glamorous,” Hamilton said, “and very nice.”

Ms. Collins knew modeling was risky as a long-term career. So she built a career in real estate, becoming managing broker and supervising agents at her Schaumburg business, which she named Star Track Enterprise Realty after her favorite TV show, “Star Trek.”

“She specialized in people that were typically told, ‘You won’t get a home,’ ” said her son Jonathan.

“She would send them to loan offices or different programs being sponsored by the city that would allow them to straighten up their credit or accumulate enough money for a down payment,” said Germane, who followed her into real estate.

“It was mainly to support her kids and to help other people,” her son Aric said of her move into real estate.

“Where most realtors were interested in getting the biggest commission, she was excited about helping people get their first home,” said her brother Juan R. Leon, pastor of Lansing’s Mount Zion Center, who said he decided to devote his life to service because of his sister’s advice to spread good in the world.

Her friend Betty Garcia said Ms. Collins mentored her and other women in real estate. “If I can do it, you can do it,” she told Garcia, who works for Keller Williams Momentum Real Estate in Palatine.

She was born Carmen Leon, the daughter of Dolores and Raphael Leon. Growing up, she loved roller-skating in the gym at St. Sabina’s and at Art’s roller rink in Harvey. Germane said they’d circle the floor to the music of The Temptations, the Four Tops and James Brown’s “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” Before school, they’d meet for 50-cent tea-and-toast breakfasts at the Hasty Tasty on 95th Street.

She sewed beautiful clothes, including her prom dress.

Carmen Collins (far left) in an ad for Ebony Fashion Fair and Greyhound Lines.

Ms. Collins started with hand modeling, graduating to ads for Fashion Fair cosmetics, Jewel Food Stores, Greyhound buses and Illinois Bell. She appeared in clothing catalogs and on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” relatives said.

Carmen Collins in an ad for Illinois Bell designer telephones.

Often, she was styled and shot by her brother-in-law, renowned photographer Ernest Collins.

Carmen Collins, styled and photographed for Ebony magazine in 1977 by her brother-in-law Ernest Collins. “It was on the boxes of Fashion Fair cosmetics and ended up on the billboard in Jamaica,” she said.

“When he got done with you,” Ms. Collins once said, “you looked like the most beautiful person in the world.”

Carmen Collins often appeared in cosmetic and hair-care ads.

In 1978, Ms. Collins decided to move her family to the northwest suburbs. They lived in Palatine and Hoffman Estates.

“She wanted to get out of the city,” her brother said, “for the sake of her boys.”

“She thought the schools would be better, safety, finances,” her son Christopher Collins said.

“She just wanted us to be happy and follow our dreams and to succeed,” her son Jonathan Collins said.

“We were the only Black kids around,” Christopher Collins said. “We heard the N-word.”

Jonathan Collins remembers “snowballs, [but] with chunks of ice, thrown at us at the bus stop.”

He said: “She sat us down and gave us an hour-long talk about defending yourself. She told us, ‘Stand up for yourself, and these kids will leave you alone.’ We went back feeling way more confident.”

Later, when they were adults, she’d say: “You gotta have a PMA — a positive mental attitude. Know what I mean, Jelly Bean?”

In addition to “Star Trek,” Ms. Collins loved sci-fi and alien movies like “Galaxy Quest,” “The Fifth Element,” “The Blob” and “Mars Attacks!”

Services have been held. In addition to her mother, sons and brother, Ms. Collins is survived by 13 grandchildren and her stepfather Curtis Smith.

Carmen Collins and her then-young sons (clockwise from front) Jonathan, Aric and Christopher.

“She would always say to me, ‘I just want you to be happy. I want you to be proud. Do your best,’ ” Aric Collins said. “She believed in us, and she believed in herself.”

Carmen Collins and her sons (from left) Christopher, Aric and Jonathan.

 Provided

Original Articicle Located At  Chicago Sun-Times 

Model Refashioned Herself to Raise Three Sons;

Carmen Collins, who has died at age 69, moved to the Chicago suburbs in search of better schools, safer streets and a career in real estate

By James R. Hagerty
19 November 2021
The Wall Street Journal Online

Copyright 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 

As a high-school student on Chicago's South Side in the late 1960s, Carmen Leon noticed that Black women were starting to appear as models in mainstream publications. It looked like an opportunity.

Under her married name, Carmen Collins, she featured in national magazines, ads for Illinois Bell and Greyhound Lines and photo shoots for clothing and other merchandise. She often made more than $100 an hour.

After an early marriage failed, Ms. Collins was a single mother of three boys. Eager to get them out of the city, away from gangs and into better schools, she moved to suburban Palatine, Ill., trained as a real-estate broker and eventually ran her own firm, Star Track Enterprise Realty.

In Palatine, some of the white kids threw snowballs and ice chunks at her sons. When they came home bruised, Ms. Collins gave them a pep talk about sticking up for themselves. "We were met with hostility, but not by everybody and not all the time," her oldest son, Jonathan Collins, said. "Things got better." In the end, going to the suburbs proved "a great move," he said.

Ms. Collins died Oct. 21 of lung cancer, diagnosed too late to allow for potentially lifesaving treatment. She was 69.

She told her boys they needed PMA, short for positive mental attitude. Then she liked to add, "Know what I mean, Jelly Bean?"

Carmen L. Leon was born May 17, 1952, and grew up in Chicago. Her father, of African-American and Cuban descent, was a police officer. Her mother taught in the public schools. After graduating from high school, she signed up with a modeling agency in Chicago run by Shirley Hamilton.

When she talked of moving out of the city, friends and family members warned that she would lack a support network in the mostly white suburbs. She decided to make the move anyway. Confronted with people who were rude or insensitive, "she just looked at them as ignorant and kept going," said Alice Germane, a friend.

Ms. Collins called her real-estate brokerage Star Track as a nod to her love of the "Star Trek" television series. She also earned money by buying merchandise, such as fishing poles or beauty products, in bulk and selling it at flea markets or online. "My mother was the first dollar store," said Christopher Collins, her youngest son.

He shares his mother's entrepreneurial habits and has devised digital business cards using QR codes and near-field communication tags to share information on cellphones. Jonathan Collins worked as a music producer and now is a respiratory therapist at a hospital. Her middle son, Aric Collins, is an artist.

Along with her three sons, Ms. Collins is survived by 12 grandchildren, her mother, Dolores Smith, and a brother, Juan R. Leon, a pastor who operates food pantries as part of a Christian mission in the Chicago area.

One of her recent projects was making soap and candles to sell online. When she was in the hospital dying of cancer, she still wanted to work on real-estate transactions.

"Nothing ever made her rich," Jonathan Collins said. "She was always working hard to pay bills."

Still, she maintained her PMA. Last year, one of her granddaughters was complaining about not being able to do something. "Don't say it's harder for you to do it," Ms. Collins said firmly. "You have to learn how to just do it. Remember, if you say it's harder, it's going to be harder."

Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com
 

James R. (Bob) Hagerty

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