Jean MacKenzie Remembered As Artist, Friend

BREWSTER – Jean MacKenzie seemed to have a knack for knowing which book would be the perfect read for her customers at the Brewster Book Store. Certainly, having worked there for decades, she was incredibly well read. But the secret was that she took the time to listen to her customers and get to know them.

 Mrs. MacKenzie died surrounded by her family last month at age 80, leaving a broad circle of friends and fond customers.

 “It’s one thing to know the book, but the magic often happens when you’re matching the reader with the right book,” said longtime store manager Val Arroyo. Mrs. MacKenzie and her sister-in-law, Jane, were the first employees when the Brewster Book Store opened in 1982. Over 40 years, they helped the store build a loyal customer base, and helped cement the store’s place as a center of community life in Brewster.

 “I think Jean connected people with books so effectively because she was very interested in people,” sister-in-law Jane said. Often soft spoken, Mrs. MacKenzie was a good listener who loved the sense of community that the book store offers. But she also had an enviable sense of design and fashion.

 “Jean was artistic, had a dry sense of humor and was such fun to work with,” Jane said. “She was the creativity behind art on the store’s front windows, the charming newspaper ads and the book store entries in local parades. One Fourth of July entry she designed was a 30-foot-long bright red bookworm with about 20 kids of all ages marching inside it,” she recalled. “In a Brewster in Bloom parade, she had the book store staff all dressed as Waldo – as in the book, “Where’s Waldo” – all 12 of us.”

 “She really was an artist in every way,” family friend Regina Hayes said. “She brought that sensibility to her whole life,” whether it was the hats she wore, the decor in her house or the amazing floral arrangements she created. She is well known for the flower stand she operated in front of her home on Swamp Road.

 “She had these most beautiful bouquets for $5 apiece. It was a steal,” friend Barbara Haines said with a chuckle. Mrs. MacKenzie grew the flowers in her magnificent garden, arranging them in Mason jars. “One day she said, how would you like to come in and see my primrose patch?” Haines recalled. She proudly showed off a large banking of primroses, which she had learned to grow from seed. There were all different varieties in different colors and shapes. “I’ll never forget that,” Haines said.

 Mrs. MacKenzie placed a high value on her friends, Arroyo added.

 “She’s the kind of person who would be there for you in bad times as well as good,” she said. “She would remember my birthday every year and leave a bouquet of flowers or some sweets in my car.”

 Mrs. MacKenzie held a degree in publishing and design, working as a graphic designer at a publishing house in London. It was on a trip to visit her parents at their retirement home in Orleans that she met the man who would become her husband. Together they built the home on Swamp Road, happily raising three children.

 “She was a calm and sensible mom and totally enjoyed being with her kids right from the start, Jane said. Later, Mrs. MacKenzie and her husband purchased the former Sealand of Cape Cod property, painstakingly converting the former marine life center into a showpiece home with gardens, a greenhouse and a violin studio.

 “She and her husband, Don, were great cooks and they loved to entertain and feed people, Jane said. 

 Mrs. MacKenzie passed on Sept. 9 after a battle with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare, progressive brain disease.

 “Her spirit lives on in her wonderful family, the fine home she and Don built, and her flowers and gardens,” Jane said. “I will also remember the quiet courage and the way she faced the last years of her life with uncomplaining, quiet dignity. I will miss her.”

 Whether it was a dinner party thrown with her husband, Donald, or projects around the house, Mrs. Mackenzie believed in the value of savoring the simple things in life – like a good book.

 “She would remind you to slow down and see the wonder all around you,” Arroyo said. “She just had such a generosity and a love of people.”