After 25 years, three generations behind the counter and many, many customers, a Kenton icon closed its doors last Friday. Owner Alexis ‘Lexie’ Brody is retiring and she thanked everyone who’s supported her over all these years, who had become not just customers, but wonderful friends.
For close to three decades, The Blue Lighthouse at 43 Kenton Road has been the go-to shop for everything you might need for your holiday at the sea – from baking to fishing tackle, applicances and more.
“If you needed something, you would find it here,” said longtime customer and friend, Pam Howard, who had come to say goodbye to Lexie and the shop she’d known and relied on. “They had everything that you needed. If you were looking for a birthday present, you’d find something. If you were sewing or knitting, everything you needed was here. Now where will we go for all those things?”
Local customers became friends as they browsed for last-minute birthday presents, pots, pans, crockery and cutlery. Shelves and shelves of good quality yarn attracted knitters and crocheters from across the district. Joburgers on their annual Christmas holiday who had forgotten to pack a cozzie or needed a new pair of slip-slops, a beach umbrella or a bucket and spade for their toddlers would head straight to The Blue Lighthouse. Books, games, hardware – “everything except food,” said owner Alexis ‘Lexie’ Brody.
“And I’ve loved every minute of it,” she said. “I love what I do, and God has been very good to me. The people in Kenton are friendly and very supportive.”
Lexie and her late husband Ben (‘Popeye’) Brody were in the livestock trade. In 1965, they opened a general dealership in Lady Frere in what was then the Transkei.
“We sold everything from chickens to coffins and coffin linings to building materials,” said Lexie. The couple and their growing family moved from Lady Frere, to Indwe, then Queenstown (now Komani) and finally to Kenton-on-Sea, where they’d had a holiday home. Hard-wired to be entrepreneurial, they opened a butchery (“Load-shedding made it impossible and we had to close that,” Lexie said); and a small laundry.
Jessica Malherbe was one of Lexie’s granddaughters who used to come and help in the shop during December holidays.
Closing shop was a sad day, but, “My family has been very supportive,” Lexie said.
Daughter Michele Malherbe was there with her daughters Micaela and Georgia to help Lexie pack up.
“Michele’s been coming into the shop since she was four years old,” Lexie said.
“When [as an adult] I worked for my mom, all three of my children came into the shop as 10-day-old babies,” said Michele. “So three generations grew up in the shop.”
In Micaela (now Yendall’s) arms as she helped with the packing and sorting was a member of the family’s fourth generation – the lively 18-month-old Rebecca, who will instead enjoy her grandmother’s love and wisdom when she visits their farm near Bathurst.
Lexie will share her time between her children Brin in Makhanda and Michele in Cape Town. Her third child, Shane lives close to Makhanda and Abigail, who lived in Australia, sadly passed away.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, March 6, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
