Rachel A Mandes

The Hon. Rachel A.P. Mandes, 88, died June 30, 2025, leaving family and friends grateful to have been a part of her remarkable life.

Fiercely loyal to her family, friends, and community, Rachel drove advancement in any area she touched. She served as Mayor of Odessa, brought high-quality health care below the canal, headed the fund-raising committee for the Middletown Senior Center, helped create the Middletown Chamber of Commerce, served on the New Castle County Ethics Committee, and helped site Middletown High School.

Rachel was a "serial entrepreneur." As a licensed hairdresser, she owned a beauty shop in Middletown. She was a drummer in two bands - one of them an all-women trio. Her love of sports prompted her to open MOT Sports - a sporting goods store in Middletown. She also worked as a bartender and as a house painter. Rachel coached Little League, making lifelong friends of "her boys."

Proud of her Italian heritage, she was so happy to go to Casalnuovo Monteretaro in Puglia, from which her paternal grandfather emigrated. He started a masonry business in Pennsylvania. Her father started two masonry businesses in Delaware, building St. Andrew's School and countless schools and government buildings. She was proud that she was able to lay brick and block by the time she was 10.

She was ahead of her time in social causes - advancing women's and gay rights. She had no fears - taking jobs most women would not have. She always credited her supportive family for her ability to step up in those areas.

Such service through government and to the community ran a distant second to her commitment to family and friends. She was a news and politics junkie, and she enjoyed sports and traveling. But she truly cherished spending time with her loved ones.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Mary (Clayton) and Louis C. Mandes, and her siblings, Mary Lou Mandes Roberts (Charles), Louis Charles Mandes, Jr., Martha Mandes Kalafut (Michael), and Joseph Morris Mandes. Her nephew, Clayton Morris Roberts also predeceased her.

Rachel is survived by her wife of 32 years, Katherine A. Means, as well as many nieces and nephews, Charles L. Roberts (Becky Jester), Franny Roberts Carrow (Walter), Tracy Mandes Smulski (Michael), Jeff Mandes, Angela Mandes Dorrell (Beau), David Kalafut, Michael Kalafut, and Mark Kalafut. She is also survived by her great-niece, Kathleen Clayton Roberts, great-nephew, Brett Landell Roberts, and nephew, Pierce Kingsley Schneidewind as well as her sister- and brother-in-law, Rebecca Means Schneidewind and Russell Schneidewind.

A visitation will be held on Wed., July 9, from 5-7 p.m. at Daniels & Hutchison Funeral Home, 212 N. Broad St., Middletown, DE 19709. The funeral service will take place on Thurs., July 10 at 11 a.m. at St. Anne's Episcopal Church, 15 East Green St., Middletown, DE 19709.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Middletown branch of Neighborhood House, 811 N. Broad St., Suite 219, Middletown, DE 19709, Historic Houses of Odessa, PO Box 697, Odessa, DE 19730, or St. Anne's Episcopal Church, 15 E. Green St., Middletown, DE 19709 (note the donation in memory of Rachel Mandes)