Ruth Penhaligon, who opened the harbour café at half past four for forty-one years

For forty-one years, if you were on Harbour Street before six in the morning, the only light on was at Penhaligon's. Ruth Penhaligon, who has died aged eighty-four, opened the café at half past four for the boats and closed it at two, when she said the tea went stale and so did the conversation.

She was born in a house on Chapel Row, the daughter of a crab fisherman, and took over the café from an aunt in 1979 with, she said, "a tea urn, eleven tables and a debt". She paid off the debt in six years and never changed the tables.

Fishermen ran up tabs that lasted whole seasons. She kept them in a school exercise book and never once, according to her son Mark, asked for the money. "She knew everybody would pay when the fish came in," he said. "And they did. Mostly."

She knew everybody would pay when the fish came in. And they did. Mostly.

She retired in 2020, handing the keys to the couple who run it now and who have kept the urn. She is survived by Mark, two grandchildren and the exercise book, which the family has offered to the harbour museum. The funeral is at St Anne's on Friday at eleven. The café will close for the morning.

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