Tracy Hauter, 1959-2015

Tracy Hauter passed away on July 4, 2015. She was 56.

Most people knew Tracy as a fixture at Roberto’s, a waitress there since it opened nearly 30 years ago. And everyone who has driven down Old Mammoth and seen the garden at Roberto’s or the post office has seen Tracy’s landscaping work, the color she brought to our lives.

Tracy started waiting tables the same time she started ripping out the daisies in the front of the restaurant and replaced it with flowers that would bloom all season long, Joanie Schaller, owner of Roberto’s said. “Whatever she wanted to do in the garden I would say yes to. The garden is a big part of Roberto’s, and so was she.” Tracy had a natural talent for gardening and as more people saw her work at Roberto’s the more people asked her to do their yards and her landscaping business bloomed.

Her green thumb and tireless spirit made her the perfect volunteer for beautifying the gray and blocky shaped Mammoth Post Office. “In fall, she’d put the PO garden to bed with a Weed-Eater buzz-cut,” friend Elizabeth Tenney said, “signaling snow is coming. We’ll have to wait for another season of Tracy’s flowers.”

“Tracy was an artist who painted with flowers, great masses of flowers,” Tenney said, “If some was good, more was better.”

She had a natural talent for growing but her eye for color and patterns had been honed after years in the fashion industry. Indeed, Tracy used to be a buyer for Nordstrom. Many of her long time friends were shocked to hear that Tracy used to be a fashion mogul before her mountain life. Tracy rarely wore make-up and spent her free time running or hiking or digging in the dirt.

“With her little dog in her pick-up, there she’d be, slender and tanned, pruning, clipping, weeding, tending our community’s garden, a beautiful and ever-changing tapestry of flowers,” Tenney recalled.

Being a tireless worker was all part of Tracy’s absolute dedication to whatever she put her mind or hands to. She was a fabulous mother, giving everything she could to her daughter, Maren.

Tracy had cancer, but few people knew how sick she really was. Friend Heidi Goetz said she came to visit Tracy when she heard cancer had come back a second time. Goetz recalled that Tracy was visibly weak and in pain, her already thin frame even thinner, but her optimism was never diluted. Goetz said she left her visit thinking, Tracy’s going to be fine. “That was her take on life,” Goetz said, “everything was going to be okay.”

Tracy never broke down or cried for help, her optimism and positive attitude was not a front, it was who Tracy really was, Goetz said, “There’s not a lot of people like that.”

The news that Tracy was sick blew people away; she was a vegan and the healthiest person most people knew. Goetz said she was amazed that Tracy could landscape all day, then wait tables all night and without a single complaint. Everyone has a bad day, Goetz explained, but it wouldn’t last long if you were lucky enough to be working with Tracy on one of those days.