Donald & Anne McDonald

Anne Clarke McDonald

First Families on the Island

Anne was born in Louisville, Kentucky in March 1949 and was adopted by Helen and Jerry Clarke on Valentine’s Day of 1950.

Her family was among the first 100 families on the island. She moved with her parents to Key Biscayne and lived at 680 Curtiswood Drive. This was across the street from Muriel and Curt Curtis, for whom Curtiswood was named. Since the Clarkes and the Curtises both had daughters by the name of Barbara Anne, the families decided they would call Barbara Anne Clarke “Anne” and Barbara Anne Curtis “Barbara,” thus avoiding confusion when calling the girls to dinner.

Anne went to the Key Biscayne Little Island Playhouse on what was the coconut plantation, and then went on to the Key Biscayne Elementary School; South Miami Junior High for 7th, 8th and 9th grade; and Coral Gables High for 10th-12th grade, graduating in 1967. She was on the Gables swim team during her junior and senior years. She attended Miami-Dade Junior College.

Many Jobs

She had many jobs. As early as 18 years old, she helped her parents at their real estate office, Clarke Real Estate. She worked as their secretary until she got her salesman’s license in 1967. At that time, there were few condominiums, and she worked primarily with home sales. A Mackle house listed at $22,000, and they sold very well.

On January 4, 1969 Anne married her high school sweetheart, Don McDonald – this January they will be celebrating 50 years of marriage. In July of 1977 they had a son, Jeremy Coleman. Anne got her brokers license in 1977 and worked with her father until 1985, when she took over the brokerage and ran it for several years before joining Camarota-Lindstrom Realty and then joining Fortune International Realty as a broker associate.

Youngest President

Anne followed in her mother’s footsteps in 1987, becoming the youngest president of the Key Biscayne Woman’s Club; and in 1988 was chosen to be the president of the Key Biscayne Real Estate Association. She was instrumental in working with the school and the local police department to make all real estate offices a “safe zone” for children and working with the DARE program on “Key Biscayne Kids Say No to Drugs.”

Task Force

After Hurricane Andrew came through the Key, Anne was asked to be on the taskforce working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make sure everyone would always be able to get home insurance from the government.

In 1996, after their son Jeremy graduated from Palmer Trinity High School, Anne and Donald decided to move to another Mackle development on Marco Island on the West Coast of Florida. Here they found the same type of community that had been developed by the Mackle brothers, and it felt like a second home. Anne still works as a broker associate with Coldwell Banker on Marco Island.