Heather DuBois wears many hats, including full-time professional, mother, wife, daughter, sister, community leader, and the owner of the popular boutique The Alley 662 in Mooreville and Tupelo. Her dedication to the small community of Mooreville began as a young girl, and has continued to grow throughout her life. Heather graduated from Mooreville High School as the youngest of three sisters, and she met her husband and sweetheart, Lee who attended Tupelo High School.
“Mooreville has always been home; it’s where our roots are. Lee and I have been married for 28 years now, and there’s nowhere else we’d rather be,” Heather said.
Lee, a retired veteran with the Army National Guard, did a tour at Desert Storm, deployed for two years in Iraq, and served his country for twenty-two years. During this time, Heather and Lee had their two sons, Ben and Easton, who are now 20 and 15.
“I’ve always been blessed with a village,” Heather said. “It wasn’t easy being a single mother while my husband was overseas, but we got through it. In the words of my mother, Linda, during challenging times, ‘get busy.’ I find that if I get busy on something positive, those feelings of anxiety that we all get sometimes disappear.”
Heather has certainly been busy in her home and community. Having worked for Mail Managers in Tupelo for 20 years while raising children, starting her own business, and combating life’s challenges, she talks about the balancing act that women often have to do.
“I’ve been blessed to be allowed to be a mother and have a career. My boss and friend, Sean, at Mail Managers has always allowed me to do that, even during a time when women really weren’t able to do so,” Heather shared.
In 2017, Heather’s niece, Katy Beth, wanted to open a boutique. Being a tight-knit family, Heather, her sister, and her brother-in-law wanted to help her with this dream.
“I worked for the Velveteen Rabbit, owned by Lisa Hawkins, for several years. It was an upscale children’s and women’s boutique in Tupelo. My brother-in-law told my niece that if she could get her Mom and me to help her, then he would invest in her boutique.”
This is how The Alley 662, in Mooreville, came to be.
“We moved into The Alley space next to the post office in Mooreville, and we were green! We went to Market in Atlanta and learned so much about what to do and what not to do. My sister, Amy, my niece, Katy Beth, and I all have different body types, so offering regular and curvy-sized clothes was a much-needed niche that needed to be filled,” Heather said.
A few years later, Katy Beth (Anderson) married, and she and her husband moved to Pontotoc to purchase City Mercantile. The couple is busy running their own interior design business, and Katy Beth knew she needed more time to run The Alley 662 but also wanted it to stay in the family.
“I spoke with my boss at Mail Managers about taking over The Alley 662, and he said “You’d be crazy not to do this; we will make it work, “Heather shared. “So I prayed that if this was meant to be, I would be able to make it work. I went to the bank, and everything lined up. On that day, Lee told me that something showed up on his cancer scan.”
Heather’s husband, Lee, was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, linked to his time of service in Iraq, and while Heather was taking on a new small business, his cancer came back.
“I knew I’d have to juggle my two children, a full-time job, a new business, and a husband who was about to have six months of treatment. At this same time, there was a demand for the boutique to expand into Tupelo, and wouldn’t you know, the perfect space opened up for that to happen. I thought I must be crazy! But, Lee, you’re crazy not to, and if you don’t, someone else will,” Heather shared.
Heather, along with her village, took over the popular boutique’s Mooreville location and began the process of opening a new location in Tupelo a few weeks before she and her husband left for Nashville for his cancer treatments. They were in Nashville for two months, and opened the Tupelo location soon after they returned.
Heather shared, “I’ve learned a lot about myself over the last few years. My mother also passed away, and she was everything good. At 47 years old, I still need her, and I miss her. During difficult times, I can just hear her saying, ‘Heather Renee, I taught you better than that!’
I’m a lot stronger that I thought I was. And if there was a silver lining to Lee and I being in Nashville for two months during his treatments, it’s that it brought us closer together as a married couple. It is hard to watch your husband fight the biggest battle of his life while trying to fulfill your other roles; we have seen and experienced blessings through all this.”
The Alley 662 boutique continues to thrive, even in a challenging economy.
“People are purchasing more intentionally than they have before. I have the best girls who work for me, and we try to purchase intentionally for them. We get creative through social media and do our best to accommodate styles and budgets,” Heather said.
“My mom taught us to love the Lord and love each other., Her whole life revolved around us. She loved doing for others—that’s what made her happy. She loved Mooreville and Mooreville schools. As a young girl, I saw her always doing the most. She set that example for me, and I try to emulate that. My mother taught me how to be a mother and a wife. My father has taught me a strong work ethic and instilled in me those values. And Lisa Hawkins, who owned the Velveteen Rabbit and now owns Room to Room Furniture in Tupelo, taught me that you can be a mother, love your community, and have a career.”
Mooreville is a small unincorporated community in the northeastern region of the Magnolia State. To some, it may look like a drive-thru town on your way to Tupelo, but to Heather, it’s home.
“Mooreville is more than just the place that I live; it is my community, my people, and it just means so much to me. We come together in good times and bad—if you haven’t experienced it, you can’t explain it.
“You don’t have to do glamorous things to make a difference. It takes everyone working together.”
