Tammy Kerr met Laura Jean Stannis when she was 2 years old. The neighbors grew up together and became college roommates. After marriage, they built houses next door to one another on Saugatuck’s Silver Lake.
After Kerr, now 45, lost her best friend last summer to breast cancer, she decided to open a women’s clothing store themed in her friend's honor.
Laura Jean, the shop, opened in March with sales associates and a store manager that brought the employee head count to eight.
"After I decided to name the store after Laura, everything just flowed from there," Kerr says. "Business has been great. We’ve been fortunate to have really good weeks, especially in the off-season in a tourist town."
Laura Jean Stannis loved all things French -- wine, cuisine, clothing and vineyards. It is only natural then, that a boutique bearing her name would have a French-themed interior motif. Among its lines of clothing, "Laura Jean" sells plenty of the things that the real Laura Jean wore regularly.
"She always wore tanks and loved leggings, so we have those," Kerr says. "And Laura liked her tops very 'blousy,' nothing too tight."
Laura Jean Stannis’s presence is everywhere in her best friend’s young shop -- including at the cash register.
"We donate a percentage of every credit card sale to the American Cancer Society," Ker says.
She partially attributes her swift retail success to -- of course -- Laura.
"Her friends want to work here and her friends all shop here," she says. "If Laura were alive, she’d want to work here herself."
"In fact, "Kerr says, laughing, "she’s probably up in heaven looking down on me, mad that I did this after she was gone. This would have been a great thing for us to do together."
Writer: Kelle Barr, Second Wave
Source: Tammy Kerr, owner, Laura Jean
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.