Owner treated all like family

Whether present in the vibrant shades of his suits or his fervent antics, Marion Halfacre lived a colorful life.

Mention of sea-foam green, orange, purple and florescent yellow surfaced throughout a number of anecdotes concerning the style of the recently deceased owner of Traditional Jewelers, as hundreds of family, friends and business acquaintances gathered amid tears and laughter Sunday afternoon at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach.

The elite club, considered Halfacre’s second home by those who knew him, seemed a fitting place to celebrate his life. It was also the last place where daughter Natalie Halfacre saw her father before his death during a father/daughter dance at the club.

“I’m 23 and I still signed us up,” Natalie said, adding that her dad could still move on the dance floor, even slinging her through his legs, a feat most of the other dads attempted, but much less successfully.

Wife Lula Halfacre opened the talks with stories about first dating her husband and how he promised never to let her get bored, and she never did. Son Eric, choking back tears, closed the time thanking all who came for their stories about his father.

Halfacre died on June 8 of heart complications in front of his Corona del Mar home. He had just returned from being honored that night as Commo- dore of the Year by the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce elite Commodores group.

“He could spot a watch junkie a mile away,” said Pacific Club President John Hamilton. “It was not his time as far as I’m concerned.”

Many remembered Halfacre for his keen business sense, but also his extreme humility in the face of success.

“We’re just a little old country store and I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” countless people recalled Halfacre saying at one time or another in his life.

As many did over the course of the remembrance, Hamilton pointed out Halfacre’s devotion to treating all he knew, including his customers, like family. One man even recounted how Halfacre brought engagement ring samples to his hospital bed after a crash that left him paralyzed so he would still be able to propose to his then-girlfriend.

“He was just that kind of person that would hold nothing back,” said Mike Mojica, a longtime friend and fellow jewel vendor. Mojica would often visit the Halfacres and became one of Traditional Jewelers’ first vendors in Newport Beach.

“It was the cornerstone that he built his reputation and his business relationships on,” Mojica said.

“My dad did not let one day of my life go by without telling me how much he loved me,” said Natalie Halfacre, who studies film at Chapman University in Orange. Many a day she would receive a call on the way to class, her father on the other end, making sure he reminded her just one more time.

“I was daddy’s little angel and he was my big angel,” she said.

Natalie Halfacre concluded with a tale about her father/daughter ritual at times when dad was away on business to kiss the pillow if they could not kiss each other goodnight.

“Cheers daddy. Kiss your pillow because I’m kissing mine every night,” Natalie Halfacre said in closing as she raised her glass.