Wisdom's mother lode ; Real estate star mines lessons from Edgewater childhood

The real estate empire that Barbara Corcoran built in Manhattan is barely a nine-mile drive from the two-bedroom apartment she shared with her parents and nine brothers and sisters on Undercliff Avenue in Edgewater 30 years ago. But when she was growing up, the twinkling lights of the big city seemed as far away as a distant planet to a young girl whose biggest adventures included swimming in the Hudson River on sweltering summer days and scaling the cliffs behind her house to sneak into Palisades Amusement Park. The Corcoran clan of blond-haired, blue-eyed children lived by their mother's rules and absorbed the advice she often gave while they gathered at the family's dinner table. To be sure, the motherly wisdom she dished out went well beyond "Eat your vegetables, dear." Although Florence Corcoran wasn't a career woman, raising 10 children shaped her into a top manager. And daughter Barbara was smart enough to apply her mom's helpful lessons to the career in real estate she decided to pursue on a whim after leaving home at age 22. Listening to Mom paid off.

Two years ago, Corcoran sold The Corcoran Group, one of Manhattan's largest residential real estate brokerage firms, for $70 million. She has stayed on as the agency's chairwoman. But these days most of her time has been focused on marketing her new book, a collection of self-help tips for success in business that gives credit to her first and favorite mentor, her mother. "Use What You've Got & Other Business Lessons I Learned from My Mom" also weaves in plenty of anecdotes from the author's experience growing up in Edgewater. "I probably had three stories for every one I used," said Corcoran, 54, at her 11th-floor office on Madison Avenue. Each of the book's 24 chapters provides one of Mom's lessons, which are often as quirky as they are insightful. "If you don't have big breasts, put ribbons on your pigtails," and "If the sofa is ripped, cover it with laughter" are just a couple of Mom's lessons that are followed by stories of how Corcoran heeded her mother's advice.

Though she left her hometown more than three decades ago, Corcoran still has family ties to Edgewater. Her brother, John Corcoran, lives in their maternal grandmother's house. Her uncle, Robert Corcoran, served on the Borough Council for years. Parents Florence and Edwin Corcoran left Edgewater and moved to Florida 12 years ago after Edwin Corcoran retired from his job as a sales service manager for a printing company. Florence Corcoran said she was a little worried when her daughter told her she was going to write a book that would highlight some of the family's experiences. "I was afraid to read it, but it's fine," said Corcoran, adding that she would have liked to see more anecdotes about Edgewater in the book. Florence Corcoran said her favorite part was Chapter 4, in which her daughter recalls what it was like to discover she had dyslexia. Barbara Corcoran quickly vowed that having a learning disability wouldn't hold her back; in fact, she used it to her advantage. "I've since learned that children who struggle with written information and facts almost always have great imaginations," the author writes. Her mother agrees. "She always was very funny and very creative," Florence Corcoran said, adding that some of her daughter's anecdotes in the book were "slightly embellished."

Last month, Barbara Corcoran returned to the borough to do a reading and book signing at Barnes & Noble. The real estate guru- turned-motivational speaker-turned-author said it was her favorite reading so far, and the greatest kind of homecoming. "It was like going down memory lane of my parents," Corcoran said. Though she did change some of the names of her neighbors in the book at her mother's request, Corcoran's depiction of Edgewater's Mayberry feel during the 1950s and 1960s was true to life. Fathers and uncles worked in factories such as the Alcoa and Hills Bros. Coffee plants. Many of the neighborhood children, including the Corcoran kids, followed one another to Holy Rosary School, where they feared getting into trouble with the nuns. "What was great about Edgewater was we were insulated from the rest of the world," Corcoran remembered fondly. "New York City was the other side of the universe. We looked at it every day, but no one could identify with living there."

There was really no reason to leave her hometown. That is, until Corcoran had a chance meeting with a tea-drinking stranger she served at the Fort Lee Diner in 1973. Corcoran worked there as a waitress, competing with a Dolly Parton look-alike to get customers to sit in her station instead. Instead of focusing on what she didn't look like, Corcoran said she focused on wowing the customers with a bright smile and an outgoing personality - not to mention a couple of ribbons on her pigtails. That's how she came to know Ramone Simone, an older gentleman from Spain's Basque country, who sat in Corcoran's station one evening. After she accepted his offer of a ride home, the two started to date. Simone convinced Corcoran that she should move to Manhattan, because that's where "smart girls" lived. Corcoran jumped at the chance, much to her mother's dismay. "Edgewater then had so much to do with your family," Corcoran said. "Moving out was tantamount to being a traitor." Corcoran started her career in real estate by working for a rental agent before branching out with her boyfriend to start their own company. Corcoran and Simone's relationship didn't pan out, and when they split, Corcoran set out on her own, creating The Corcoran Group in 1976. She is now married to a former real estate broker, Bill Higgins, originally of Hillsdale. They have a 9-year-old son. The family divides time between a Manhattan apartment and a weekend house in Dutchess County, N.Y.

Still, Corcoran said, Edgewater remains very much a part of who she is. "The advantages of being from Edgewater was everyone knew who you were, which made you important," Corcoran said. "Good or bad, you were watched and you were noticed. For a child, it was very comforting."