Jimmy Smith of Kalamazoo says that for 45 years, he shopped at the Michigan News Agency once or twice a month.
He was a customer when Dean Hauck’s stepfather, Vincent "Pops" Malmstrom, owned the Michigan News before Dean took it over in 1988.
Over the years, Smith said, Dean became his friend. But he hasn’t been back to the bookstore since he bought four periodicals on February 7.
“I just said, ‘I'll see her next week.’ That was the last time I saw her.”
Dean died the next day at age 85. And the store that opened in 1947 has been shuttered ever since.
But the Michigan News Agency will be open again on Friday at 5 pm, during Art Hop. Dean's family invites the people of Kalamazoo to join them at the store for a memorial open house.
“The store will be open for people to come in and spend time, take their own time to say goodbye to her and look around the place once more exactly as it was when she left it," said Margaret Hauck, one of Dean’s daughters, who added that the store won't be able to sell books and magazines during the memorial.
Smith said he plans to attend, but he wants to know what the sisters plan to do with the store.
"We're all hoping that somebody, whoever that is, will invest in that institution," Smith said.
"It's a piece of the past, for folks that actually read journals and collect them and have a an appreciation for them."
Margaret Hauck, who lives in New Orleans, said the outpouring of support has uplifted the sisters, but neither of them lives here and they won't continue to run the newsstand.
Hauck said her mother never expected them to. Instead, Dean encouraged them to follow their own dreams. Still, she understands why people don't want the Michigan News to go.
“I will say this for people who wish the News would continue; Dean was the Michigan News," Hauck said.
"So, on some level when I think about it, I don't see it being what it was without her there.
"I don't see her being who she was without the News. So, anything that comes next is going to be at least a little bit different because it's not got its heart anymore.”
Hauck confirmed that the family is considering offers but said they haven't made any decisions yet.
"One of the unifying things with the people that we've talked to is the idea that we need to honor Dean's legacy and that we need to make that building, that corner, something important for the community."
Hauck said her mother was an advocate for the homeless and a community supporter who fought for decades to reduce speeding and turn Michigan Avenue into a two-way street. Dean was often seen helping people just trying to cross the busy street in front of her store.
She died in February knowing that Kalamazoo city planners are converting the city’s one-way streets into two-ways, though it saddens her daughter that she didn't live long enough to see that happen.
Hauck said her mother asked the city to put a crossing light at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Church Street to make the intersection safer for pedestrians.
“I would love to see that corner be the Dean Margaret Hauck Memorial Crosswalk with a light at that corner, actually. Because I know she's always wanted a light there.”
The memorial open house for Dean Hauck begins at 5 pm on Friday at the Michigan News Agency at 308 Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo. It will run until 8:30 pm. At sunset, family and friends will release bubbles in Dean's honor.
