SEQUIM — Alice Jean Haught knew how to run a business well – but more importantly, her friends say, she knew how to enjoy life.
The owner of Dungeness Bay Wine and Cheese, who worked to enliven downtown Sequim for well over a decade, died June 16 of complications from a stroke she suffered in May. Her family plans a private celebration of her life.
Very sudden
Mrs. Haught, who celebrated her 69th birthday March 26, seemed “very healthy” this spring, said Kim Farrell, a friend and the fiancee of Mrs. Haught’s oldest son, Craig.
“It was very sudden; she was such a ball of energy,” Farrell said.
A nurse and then a Realtor before opening her own business, Mrs. Haught started with an antique store, the Queen’s Cabinet on Cedar Street, in 1992.
Inspired by travel throughout Italy and France, she introduced gourmet cheeses and fine wines and then moved her shop, now made over into Dungeness Bay Wine and Cheese, to 123 E. Washington St. in 2005.
The store was “like her living room,” Farrell said. When a customer walked in, “she reached out and became a friend. People would come into the shop just to visit her . . . she always made time for them.”
Farrell remembers many afternoons when she’d stop in to see Craig Haught, who is the shop’s sommelier, and his mother.
“They’d be sitting there, laughing about little things,” she said. “What I learned from Jean was to laugh and enjoy yourself in the moment.
“She was about living in the present and finding joy in whatever you’re doing.”
Mrs. Haught liked to joke about being the queen of the Queen’s Cabinet, and had a signature greeting.
“She’d always say, ‘Carry on,'” Farrell remembered. “Or she’d say, ‘Make it a beautiful day.'”
Mrs. Haught and her husband, Jerry, lived in Anaheim and Riverside, Calif., for four decades before buying their Happy Valley home in 1990; they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last June.
Downtown champion
Mrs. Haught became a champion of the downtown, dreaming up ways to promote it and connecting business people with one another, said Tracy Blume, a friend who performed with her jazz group at Dungeness Bay Wine and Cheese.
“She was full of ideas and terribly creative,” Blume said. “She was really good at hooking you up with people who would help get things done.”
Mrs. Haught loved taking part in Sequim’s First Friday Art Walks, and she helped create Jazz in the Alley, a cluster of downtown concerts on Sequim’s Lavender Festival weekend.
“She really got the big picture, that music and business can go hand in hand,” Blume said.
The third annual Jazz in the Alley presentation will be dedicated to Mrs. Haught, Blume added.
Dungeness Bay Wine and Cheese was among the trio of downtown venues that hosted jazz bands during the festival in July 2007; this year Just Friends, a local jazz group, will perform at the shop July 17-18.
Blume added that Mrs. Haught worked hard — and made it look fun.
“Jean was there six days a week,” she said. “She was the whole show” and made Dungeness Bay Wine and Cheese feel a bit like the Boston bar in the television show, “Cheers.”
“You could go into her ‘office,’ have a glass of wine and solve the world’s problems,” Blume said.
Farrell and Craig plan to keep Dungeness Bay Wine and Cheese open four days a week — Wednesday through Saturday “and some Sundays,” Farrell said.
Another friend, Sharon Blake, is helping to run the shop, which is filled with local and imported wines, cheeses, chocolates and gifts.
“If you go into her store, her spirit is everywhere,” said Farrell, adding that Mrs. Haught had planted a small vineyard at her home.
In addition to her husband and her son, Craig, of Sequim, Mrs. Haught is survived by her sons Brian Haught of Chandler, Ariz., and Mark Haught of Bainbridge Island; daughters-in-law Christina and Leticia; and four granddaughters.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
