The Michigan News Agency opened in 1947. On Monday it was closed.
At lunchtime, three bouquets stood by the door, under a sign that read “closed for illness" — tributes left in honor of proprietor Dean Margaret Hauck, who would have turned 86 next month.
After she took over her stepfather’s bookstore and newsstand in 1988, Hauck became a fixture in downtown Kalamazoo.
Customer Abby Elliot discovered the store when she was 22 and came by to pay her respects.
“I love newspapers, they have such an array. I just, I don't know what will happen. Where will people get all the information?"
"She was great," Elliot added. "And you know, I'm sure she didn't know me by name, but I would come in as often as I could."
At Studio Grill next door, manager Ashton Mastenbrook said Hauck loved the Detroit Tigers. She called her a staple of the community.
“If she didn't have a book, she would order it for you and ask you how you liked it. She probably read every single book that she had in there," Mastenbrook said.
"She was just a great conversationalist and such a wonderful positive woman.”
Diner Mike Reiter said he went to the News "Mostly to wait in line for Studio Grill, but while you had the opportunity, picking up a good Agatha Christie mystery."
"It's a way to pass the time for sure. It's comfy, it's cozy and certainly will be missed if it becomes something else,” Reiter added.
Diners Chuck and Rhonda Overberger appreciated the selection of books by local writers Hauck stocked.
“There's nothing else like it in Kalamazoo and I don't even know if there's anything like like it in Grand Rapids, ” said Chuck Overberger.
His wife agreed. Rhonda Overberger said the News had "just an atmosphere that that felt welcoming and comfortable and kind of overly jammed with stuff."
Luis Pena was on his way in for lunch. He said he heard about Hauck’s death over the weekend.
"The most sad part to me is that I just went back and read a piece from 2023 and Dean was like, 'I'm not going to retire yet. I'm going to stick around for another 10 or 15 years.' And she was like, 'Then I'll hand it on to to the next person.' So, gone too soon. I was very upset to see it," Pena said.
Hauck was born in the Philippines to an American family in 1939. According to a 2023 story by Loy Norrix High School’s Knight Life, Hauck, her mother and her sister were held in an internment camp by Japanese military as prisoners of war.
They were rescued by American troops near the end of World War II and moved to California, then to Kalamazoo in 1947. Hauck eventually took over the Michigan News Agency, which her stepfather owned, and became a fixture in downtown Kalamazoo for decades.
On social media, Hauck’s family announced plans for a memorial later in the spring.
