Magers Earns Honors for Decades of Helping
Mackinaw City
By Paul Gingras

"I do all the decorating here," said Jane Magers, sitting among her decorations at the Pancake Chef restaurant in Mackinaw City Friday, March 14. Now in her 49th year with the business, she is known in Mackinaw City for her involvement in the commerce, promotion, and improvement of the community.

In the 1960s, Jane Magers was working a concession stand aboard the Straits Transit ferry, The Straits of Mackinac. From early morning until mid-afternoon, she rode the route from Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island, absorbing the beauty of the Straits, the conversations of tourists, the sound of water lapping against the steel hull, and when she clocked out at 1 p.m., she kept right on riding.

"It was my favorite job," she recalls. "The people were fun, and the older guys on the boats would adopt you."

She, in turn, adopted the people of Mackinaw City, and over the next four decades, she would immerse herself in the commerce, promotion, and improvement of her community.

To her surprise Sunday, February 10, on her 65th birthday, she entered St. Anthony's Parish Hall in Mackinaw City and discovered not only a party to receive her, but a proclamation from the village council recognizing her strong work ethic and spirit of volunteerism.

A winter storm raged outside, but it had not dissuaded a crowd from arriving to celebrate.

"It seemed like the worst storm in 25 years, and we still had 50 people there," said Bob Fisher, Miss Magers' friend, employer, and owner of the Pancake Chef restaurant in Mackinaw City.

"Jane is very good-hearted," Mr. Fisher said.

Jane Magers grew up in Indiana and studied journalism at Ball State University. She was still in college when she came to Mackinaw City looking for summer work, and landed a job at Miller's Gifts, a shop owned by Bud Miller, at one time the owner of the Pancake Chef.

At the time, he employed another person named Jane, so Mr. Miller decided to call his new employee Baby Jane. Shortened to B.J., it became the name by which she is known in Mackinaw City today.

She came up here because, as a kid, she vacationed at Houghton Lake with her parents, Bill and Dorothy Magers, and her brother and sister, and she thought Mackinaw City would be a nice place to work for the summer.

"I liked it so much I stayed," she said.

Today, the Pancake Chef has been expanded into the place once occupied by the gift shop, and the view outside of East Central Avenue has improved.

She has worked hard to make things better, both inside and outside the restaurant.

She founded the Miss Teen Fort Michilimackinac Pageant in the early 1970s. The goal was to select a young girl to reign over the Memorial Day festivities of the village, which included a reenactment of Pontiac's uprising at Michilimackinac in 1763 and the Memorial Day parade.

"Jane has taken on causes that no one else would touch," Mr. Fisher explained. "Like the Fort Michilimackinac Teen Pageant; she handled that almost single-handedly."

Contestants came from Emmet, Cheboygan, and Mackinac counties, and Miss Magers and her assistants would spend hours helping the girls with costumes, talents, and stage presence, in addition to coordinating the pageant.

"They kept me young," she said of her years coaching the girls.

In 1976, the pageant committee bestowed its highest honor upon Miss Magers, the Raymond B. Desy Award. She has also been recognized as an outstanding citizen by the Greater Mackinaw City Chamber of Commerce.

For six years, Miss Magers served as a member of the Downtown Development Authority, where she and her colleagues assessed everything from the health of the trees to the gratings in the sidewalks and helped decide where the city would direct its money for maintenance and development.

She loves the old-style lamps and Christmas bulbs that illuminate downtown Mackinaw City, which were installed during her service.

"It looks like a little English village at night, especially when it's snowing," she said.

Miss Magers has been a member of the Women of the Moose 1494 in St. Ignace, in which she was honored with the Academy of Friendship, the Star Recorder, and its highest accolade, the College of Regents.

Her give-it-your-all ethic enabled her to master every job the Pancake Chef had to offer.

She become general manager in the mid 1970s, and Mr. Fisher sent her to the Disney Institute for management training.

"It was fascinating," she said. Geared for working with tourists from diverse backgrounds, the training helped her learn how to provide good service to all kinds of people, she said.

As the general manager of the Pancake Chef, she helps the restaurant's employees both professionally and personally. For years, she and Mr. Fisher have used the resources of the longstanding business to connect their employees with everything from child care to legal advice. Some have stayed with the business for more than 20 years.

"Without Jane, I would be awfully busy," Mr. Fisher said. "She has a lot on her plate."

Miss Magers keeps a watchful eye on everything from the pebbles on the roof of the Pancake Chef to the toothpicks at the cash register.

"She has always had a perfectionist attitude. Given a project, you can be sure she will get it done," Mr. Fisher said.

She attributes her hard work ethic to her first job in Indiana, at a city newsstand owned by her grandfather, Lawrence Loney.

"You're not my granddaughter now," he told her on the first day; "you're my employee. Now get to work."

Miss Magers said she is amazed at the developments in Mackinaw City since her arrival. One was the development of Mackinaw Crossings, a tremendous boost to the town, she said.

"It feels like you're in a different country" in the Crossings, she said. "You feel like a kid, no matter what age you are."

In the small village of about 800 year-around residents, it takes a core group of volunteers like Miss Magers to promote the many activities that take place, Mr. Fisher said.

"Without people like her, things just don't happen," he said.