Bee Stuart

Founder • Farmer • Horsewoman • Mentor • Community Advocate • Southwest Virginia Through & Through

Long before Bee Stuart began selling real estate, she understood something important about property:

Land is never just land.

It can be a family’s livelihood. A place where children grow up. A farm passed from one generation to the next. A fresh beginning. A piece of home someone has spent years working toward.

Bee learned that early, growing up on a large cattle and sheep operation in Russell County. Farming and livestock were part of everyday life, giving her an understanding of land—and the people whose lives are tied to it—that can’t really be learned from a book.

Years later, that same understanding would become part of the way she approached real estate.

More than 25 years ago, Bee took a leap and built something of her own.

Stuart & Associates began with Bee.

She built the company from the ground up, but never with the goal of simply becoming the biggest. Bee believed in choosing good people, expecting good work and creating a place where clients could trust that the person sitting across from them genuinely cared about what happened next.

Over the years, that philosophy shaped more than a business. It shaped a team.

Bee became a mentor to the people who worked beside her—teaching, challenging, encouraging and holding them to the same high standards she expected of herself.

Her influence has reached well beyond her own office. Bee served as President of the Southwest Virginia Association of Realtors in 2009, the same year she was honored as Realtor of the Year. She has also served in MLS and professional standards leadership and given her time to organizations throughout Russell County, including healthcare, civic and community-development efforts.

But the titles have never been the whole story.

Bee is still, at heart, a farmer and horsewoman.

Her life has included cattle, horses, dogs and plenty of days when the work waiting at home didn't care how long the workday had already been. Her love of Natural Horsemanship introduced a philosophy of “love, language and leadership”—three words that, perhaps without intending to, describe much of the way Bee has approached people, business and life.

And now, after more than 25 years of building, Bee finds herself in a place few founders ever get to experience:

She gets to watch what she created become something new.

As Stuart & Associates becomes Akers & Associates, Bee isn't leaving the story. She's simply taking a different place within it.

She remains with the firm as Associate Broker, continuing to serve clients, support the team and offer the kind of knowledge that only comes from decades spent walking land, opening doors, solving problems and helping people through some of life's biggest transitions.

And she has entrusted the next chapter to someone she helped teach.

In Jimmy Akers, Bee saw ambition, growth and a genuine commitment to people. She watched him learn. She watched him become stronger. And when the time came to decide who could carry the business forward, she chose him.

The name on the door may be changing.

The foundation isn't.

Bee's fingerprints will always be part of this company—in its standards, its people, its connection to Southwest Virginia and the belief that real estate should always be about more than a transaction.

Perhaps Bee's legacy can be understood most simply in the way she has worked all along:

Know your community. Know your business. Take care of your people.

That was part of the heart behind Stuart & Associates.

Now, it becomes part of what Akers & Associates carries forward.

Built on Legacy. Made to Evolve.