It’s been quite a while since we officially updated the profile of our co-founder and co-owner, Anna Yeager Brakefield. So much has transpired since the beginning of Red Land Cotton that we felt it was time to share more!
Anna and her 2 brothers, Mark and Joe, spent their early childhood in rural Lawrence County, Alabama. Their childhood home was literally in the middle of cotton fields. The red dirt that grows the cotton for Red Land Cotton products also provided the background of the lives of the Yeager children.
After graduating from Hartselle High School, Anna headed to Auburn University where she got a degree in Graphic Design and met the love of her life and future husband, Nick Brakefield. That degree proved very useful when one month after graduation she flew to New York City to work with a large branding and advertising agency in Manhattan, KBS+P. There’s just nothing like the lessons that can be learned in one of the biggest cities in the world.
During her 2 year stint in the Big Apple, Nick was finishing pharmacy school at Auburn University School of Pharmacy. As graduation loomed closer, (LOOMED. See what we did there? Wink! Wink!) Nick asked Anna to be his wife. The young couple compromised to make a life together in Nashville where Anna worked at a small branding firm and Nick would go on to get a job in pharmacy at Vanderbilt Hospital.
That very year (2015) the Yeagers gathered for Thanksgiving. During the meal, Anna’s farmer father, Mark Yeager, made a life changing proposition:
He proposed that they create a sheet company that had an entirely American Made supply chain. He and Anna’s brothers would produce all the cotton for the company on their family farm if Anna would be willing to handle design, branding and marketing.
And just like that, Red Land Cotton was born.
Within a year, Anna and her father had their first sheets in hand and were ready for their first Christmas season. We all started that first season packing and shipping out of the office at Yeager Gin Company. That actually went on for about a year. Mark’s private office was turned into inventory storage. We need to show y’all pictures from that time. It was pretty hilarious!
Soon the business had grown and it was necessary to find a place to conduct a store front, house inventory and pack and ship that was NOT a gin office. Anna and Mark found a small building on Moulton’s Historic Square and for the first time, Red Land Cotton had a real home.
During this time, Anna and Nick had their first child, a beautiful little girl named Katharine Nadine. Through bottles and sleepless nights, business zoom calls and raising a baby, Anna and her team made sure that Red Land Cotton continued to flourish.
Four years later, the little building on the Square could no longer house their burgeoning business. Sad to leave their friends on the Square, Anna and her dad had to decide whether to buy or build a new home for Red Land Cotton. Their search for a building was fruitless, so building it was!
Plans were drawn up and the building of the new Red Land Cotton store and distribution center was finished when God blessed Anna and Nick with a son, George Dallas Brakefield. Right after his birth, Anna and Nick decided the time had come to get closer to her work because the business was growing exponentially and new products were launching and whew! Red Land Cotton needed Anna on a daily basis.
So with a toddler and a new baby in tow, the Brakefields made their way to Huntsville, Alabama where they now reside. Anna drops her babies off at daycare and drives an hour into Moulton every day to oversee all things Red Land Cotton while Nick drives and hour and a half into Nashville 3 days a week to continue his work as a pharmacist at Vanderbilt. Katharine Nadine is currently 3 years old and George Dallas just had his 1st birthday. Life is busy, but life is good.
It’s not easy being a mother of 2 and running a growing textile business, but with the support of her husband and her amazing team at Red Land Cotton, things get done! Some days Anna laughs to keep from crying and other days she feels like a BOSS, but most days are just pleasant and productive. But if anyone ever wants to talk about being a wife, mother and business owner-Anna Yeager Brakefield is definitely your person.
So here’s to our fearless leader, Anna Yeager Brakefield-Wife. Mother. BOSS. You make us what we are-an American Made farm to home heirloom quality linen company designed, branded and marketed by the woman herself.
Anna and her 2 brothers, Mark and Joe, spent their early childhood in rural Lawrence County, Alabama. Their childhood home was literally in the middle of cotton fields. The red dirt that grows the cotton for Red Land Cotton products also provided the background of the lives of the Yeager children.
After graduating from Hartselle High School, Anna headed to Auburn University where she got a degree in Graphic Design and met the love of her life and future husband, Nick Brakefield. That degree proved very useful when one month after graduation she flew to New York City to work with a large branding and advertising agency in Manhattan, KBS+P. There’s just nothing like the lessons that can be learned in one of the biggest cities in the world.
During her 2 year stint in the Big Apple, Nick was finishing pharmacy school at Auburn University School of Pharmacy. As graduation loomed closer, (LOOMED. See what we did there? Wink! Wink!) Nick asked Anna to be his wife. The young couple compromised to make a life together in Nashville where Anna worked at a small branding firm and Nick would go on to get a job in pharmacy at Vanderbilt Hospital.
That very year (2015) the Yeagers gathered for Thanksgiving. During the meal, Anna’s farmer father, Mark Yeager, made a life changing proposition:
He proposed that they create a sheet company that had an entirely American Made supply chain. He and Anna’s brothers would produce all the cotton for the company on their family farm if Anna would be willing to handle design, branding and marketing.
And just like that, Red Land Cotton was born.
Within a year, Anna and her father had their first sheets in hand and were ready for their first Christmas season. We all started that first season packing and shipping out of the office at Yeager Gin Company. That actually went on for about a year. Mark’s private office was turned into inventory storage. We need to show y’all pictures from that time. It was pretty hilarious!
Soon the business had grown and it was necessary to find a place to conduct a store front, house inventory and pack and ship that was NOT a gin office. Anna and Mark found a small building on Moulton’s Historic Square and for the first time, Red Land Cotton had a real home.
During this time, Anna and Nick had their first child, a beautiful little girl named Katharine Nadine. Through bottles and sleepless nights, business zoom calls and raising a baby, Anna and her team made sure that Red Land Cotton continued to flourish.
Four years later, the little building on the Square could no longer house their burgeoning business. Sad to leave their friends on the Square, Anna and her dad had to decide whether to buy or build a new home for Red Land Cotton. Their search for a building was fruitless, so building it was!
Plans were drawn up and the building of the new Red Land Cotton store and distribution center was finished when God blessed Anna and Nick with a son, George Dallas Brakefield. Right after his birth, Anna and Nick decided the time had come to get closer to her work because the business was growing exponentially and new products were launching and whew! Red Land Cotton needed Anna on a daily basis.
So with a toddler and a new baby in tow, the Brakefields made their way to Huntsville, Alabama where they now reside. Anna drops her babies off at daycare and drives an hour into Moulton every day to oversee all things Red Land Cotton while Nick drives and hour and a half into Nashville 3 days a week to continue his work as a pharmacist at Vanderbilt. Katharine Nadine is currently 3 years old and George Dallas just had his 1st birthday. Life is busy, but life is good.
It’s not easy being a mother of 2 and running a growing textile business, but with the support of her husband and her amazing team at Red Land Cotton, things get done! Some days Anna laughs to keep from crying and other days she feels like a BOSS, but most days are just pleasant and productive. But if anyone ever wants to talk about being a wife, mother and business owner-Anna Yeager Brakefield is definitely your person.
So here’s to our fearless leader, Anna Yeager Brakefield-Wife. Mother. BOSS. You make us what we are-an American Made farm to home heirloom quality linen company designed, branded and marketed by the woman herself.
sally engler
Love your story….empowering women!!!! Glad i came across your website….many,many years ago my dad ran the cotton gin in Uniontown til it was sold and of course there hasn’t been any cotton there in decades. My dad went to work for Comer Machinery co in atlanta and then charlotte til he retired. At that time the cotton industry had dwindled down to almost nothing. But miss the days he would come home with bags of socks and we thought the cotton thermal blankets were to die for…. much like what you are selling !!!
Keep up the good work and hopefully i can afford some of your products soon!!
sincerely
sally engler
Ron
Great story about how hard work and the foresight to see that there is yearning for American made products helped make a successful business.
Daniel Lyons
As a patriotic family farm owner operator myself, I love your story. One question: I always enjoy the ads Mark Yeager delivers on the radio. Who writes these ads? Anyway, God bless and Godspeed to you all!
Janet Arnold
Love this company and their products, really appreciate their excellent customer service
Jo Robbins
Great article and Bio… awesome to see such great dedicated folks bringing fine textiles and manufacturing back to America!!! I’m the proud owner and gifter of redland products. Needless to say : AWESOME!!!! God bless your family business!