Plumbing

Nita Hayden Vasquez, Marin Metropolis storekeeper and neighborhood chief, dies

For 40 years, Hayden’s Market was a downtown and community center for residents of Marin City, the unincorporated neighborhood across the freeway from Sausalito.

The grocery and liquor store was a standalone building, and the parking lot was as busy as any 1960s drive-in movie theater. It was chaired by Daniel and Bea Arthur Hayden along with their daughter Nita Hayden Vasquez, who ran Hayden’s until the day it closed to make way for a residential and retail development called Marin City USA.

Hayden Vasquez died January 11 in Tampa, Florida, where she had lived with her daughter, Sheri Murphy. Hayden Vasquez died of natural causes after suffering from dementia, Murphy said. she was 80

“Hayden’s was a family business, and my mother was a pioneer as one of the first black women businesswomen in Marin City,” Murphy said. “She was loving and gave back to the community. When people were short on cash, she let them slide. She was always lovely but also strong and independent.”

According to Marin City archivist and historian Felecia Gaston, one of the most important aspects of Hayden’s Market was what went on outside. People drove up Chevrolet Caprices and the other great American cars of the ’60s and ’70s and either sat on the hood or the trunk or set up a chart table and folding chairs.

“It was called Front. It was a place where people would gather to socialize, play cards and dominoes,” said Gaston, author of A Grand New Start… This Is Home: The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.

“There was a great deal of respect and community pride on the front lines. Mothers would send children there with a message for their husbands, telling them to come home.”

The other way to find someone was to call Hayden Vasquez at the store.

“I know everyone,” she told a Chronicle reporter when the store closed in 1995. “From babies to grandmothers.”

Nita Louise Hayden was born on March 11, 1942 in Baton Rouge, La. A year later, her parents moved her to California to follow a large migration of black Americans who left the South to work in the munitions effort during World War II. Marin City had just been built, a collection of small wooden houses owned by the Marin Housing Authority, where the Haydens moved in. Daniel Hayden got a job as a sixth-grade teacher at Patrick Henry Elementary School in San Francisco and was soon elected president of the Marin City Tenants Council. He was also active in the NAACP.

According to Gaston’s research for her book, there was a full-service grocery store in Marin City called Brice Brothers that was run by an Italian family. It changed hands and names several times and was known as the Marin City Market when the Haydens bought it in 1956. They renamed it Hayden’s Department Store to reflect the range of items.

In the early 1960s, the temporary wartime shelters were replaced by a half-dozen high-rise and low-rise structures called the Marin City Projects. The new housing opportunities attracted black families, and those with money for a down payment bought so-called “pole homes,” built on telephone poles set into the hillside as foundation pillars, Gaston said. The Haydens lived up the hill from their shop in a stilt house.

Hayden’s was a shopping center until 1964, when Daniel Hayden leased land to construct a detached building, which he renamed Hayden’s Marin City Market.

“He owned the building but not the land, which was a thousand times more valuable,” Murphy said. “He made numerous attempts to buy the land under the store, but he was turned down.”

The Hayden children all eventually moved on, including Nita, who worked at the store while attending Tamalpais High School and San Francisco State College. She then married and moved to Texas to start a family. But she came home when her father died in 1982 to take over the business and run it for her mother, who had taken over the ownership.

“She was an example of black excellence,” Marin City resident Ronnie Jones wrote in a Facebook post following the death of Hayden Vasquez. “She brought honor to people and I’m sure she’s had a lot of losses, but she never stopped helping people. She did things discreetly and I don’t think we always appreciate what people do, but she gave back right in front of our eyes the whole time.”

Lynda Huff, a Marin City resident who shopped at Hayden’s from the day it opened to the day it closed, called Nita “very, very caring” as she worked the front desk. “I saw her teaching the kids how to count their money. I know my son Daryll’s math improved after he learned how to pay Nita for candy.”

The kids came after school, the plumbers, welders, locksmiths and retired postal workers were there between 10am and 3pm. They were able to set up their gaming tables in the parking lot without being pressured to come in and buy anything. Hayden’s would even supply tables if required.

“It was the place to hang out,” Huff said. “Nita didn’t let anyone disrespect the retired men.”

In 1984, Hayden married Jesus Vasquez, an appliance dealer in Vallejo. They lived together in Marin City until they bought a house in Vallejo in the mid ’80s.

She commuted to Marin City and ran Hayden’s until the land underneath was reclaimed, along with the adjacent Sausalito Flea Market and a few other small retailers. A 45-acre lot has been demolished and leveled to make way for Marin City USA, a $100 million project designed to transform the Hayden’s-served area into a middle-class city. It had been in the planning for years and Hayden Vasquez expected to be there.

“I’ve been sitting here for 34 years waiting for development,” she said at the time. “This should be a temporary location. I’m still waiting to be part of the new center. … I am very bitter. (The developers) drive me out. They deny me my livelihood.”

After the store closed, Hayden Vasquez worked in retail for another 10 years before retiring in 2003.

“I’m sure she transferred the same skills and what she learned from running a business to her other jobs,” her daughter said. “She was a sociable person, very sociable, and that made her a good salesperson.”

On her 80th birthday, March 11, a memorial service was held at the San Rafael Yacht Club. Resolutions were presented on behalf of US Rep. Jared Huffman, State Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire, Rep. Damon Connolly and Marin County Secretary Stephanie Moulton-Peters. Gaston presented the family with a plaque on behalf of the Marin City Historical and Preservation Society.

“In recognition of Nita Hayden Vasquez,” it read. “Your energy, spirit and guidance will stay with us forever.”

Survivors include her daughter Murphy; sisters Bea Stephens of Oakland and Flo Hamilton of Sacramento; and brother Daniel Hayden of Vallejo.

Reach Sam Whiting: swhiting@sfchronicle.com

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