Bella Cabakoff: What Happened To Les Wexner’s Mother?

Who Is Les Wexner’s Mother, Bella?

Bella Cabakoff is the mother of American billionaire businessman Leslie Herbert Wexner. Bella’s son Les Wexner is the founder of L Brands and currently serves as Chairman Emeritus on its board of directors. He is a founding member and the first chair of The Ohio State University Foundation. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Bella Cabakoff: Bio Summary

Bella Cabakoff is the woman who gave birth to businessman Les Wexner. Bella was born in 1908, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She is the daughter of Harry Herschel Cabakoff and Lena Leah Cabacoff. Her siblings are Ida Cabakoff, Rebecca Cabakoff, Morris Cabakoff, and Isadore I Cabacoff.

Bella Cabakoff is a first-generation American, according to her son’s Wikipedia page. She moved to Columbus, Ohio, when she was a child. There are some unknown facts regarding Bella Cabakoff’s early life and family. Nothing is known about her education. She got married to Harry Louis Wexner (1899–1975). They are the parents of Les Wexner and Susan Wexner.

Bella Cabakoff Was A Businesswoman And Philanthropist

Bella Cabakoff was actively involved in philanthropy. She was also a businesswoman. She was an emeritus board member of The Limited. At age 21, she became the youngest buyer at the former F&R Lazarus. After over 20 years at Lazarus, Bella and her husband, Harry Wexner established a women’s clothing store in Columbus, Ohio, in the early 1950s.

The clothing store was given the name”Leslie’s”. It had been named in honor of their son Les Wexner, who would begin his retail career working at Leslie’s. In 1964, Bella and her husband, Harry eventually closed their store and joined their son after he established his first Limited store, in 1963. She served on The Limited board since its inception in 1963, alongside her husband and son.

Bella Cabakoff worked as a secretary until she died in 2001, while her husband Harry was chairman until he died in 1975. As for Bella, she is said to have remained on the board for 34 years. She made charitable contributions that came on the local, national, and international levels, targeted toward humanitarian and health causes, and were in the range of millions of dollars.

ALSO, READ: Les Wexner’s Children: Sarah Wexner, David Wexner, Harry Wexner, And Hannah Wexner

In 1985, Bella Cabakoff made a donation of$3 million to build the Wexner Center for Pediatric Research, in memory of her sister, Ida Cabakoff, who had been treated at the Columbus, Ohio, hospital in the early 1920s. She and her son Les Wexner were the first to make a $1 million personal donation to the United Way (1989).

Their names were inscribed in marble and are on display in the lobby of the United Way Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Her concern for the rights of the elderly culminated in 1990 in a campaign that raised $20 million to renovate and expand a Columbus seniors community that is now called Wexner Heritage Village.

In 1999, Bella Cabakoff and her daughter, Susan Wexner donated money to renovate Israel’s first dental school building into the Wexner Building for Dental Medicine and the Dr. Izador I. Cabakoff Center for Advanced and Continuing Education in Dentistry in Jerusalem. (The center was named after Mrs. Wexner’s brother, who had been a dentist in Columbus.)

In 1984, Bella Cabakoff also raised $11.5 million as Columbus chairwoman of Bonds for Israel. In 1991, her son Les Wexner gave $5 million in honor of his mother to a learning center at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. “The (museum) will teach the next generation the tragic lessons that my generation learned the hard way,” she said at the time.

Bella Cabakoff had made significant contributions to the Columbus Jewish Foundation and the Columbus Museum of Art and served on boards for such Columbus institutions as the Heritage House, Leo Yassenoff Jewish Center, OperaColumbus, Columbus Symphony, ProMusica, and BalletMet.

ALSO, READ: Hannah Wexner: Who Is Les Wexner’s Daughter?

What Happened To Les Wexner’s Mother?

Les Wexner’s mother Bella Cabakoff died after a long illness. She passed away on 4 November 2001, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She was at the age of 93 years when she died. According to her Findagrave profile, she was buried at New Agudas Achim Cemetery, in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, USA.