60 Years in a Clip Joint
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Dick Simpson in front of his shop on the south side of the square in Mount Ayr.
By Mike Avitt
Dick Simpson is in the business of turning heads.
Not as a pretty young lady might turn heads; Dick does it with clippers, scissors, and a barber chair. And he’s been doing it for sixty years now in the same shop.
Dick finished barber school and began his internship at Clarinda. However, that barber sold his building and Dick was able to finish his internship at Ellston in the Paul Jackson Barbershop.
In 1963 Dick and his wife Theanna bought their current building at 105 W. Monroe. Theanna opened her beauty shop in the east half of the building in April 1963. The west half was occupied by Meadows Insurance until April of 1964 when Dick moved in and opened his barbershop.
At this time Dick and Theanna lived in the apartment behind their shops.
Dick held his Grand Opening on May 9, 1964.
There were three other barber shops operating in Mount Ayr in May 1963: Buell’s Barber Shop, Vern Taggart’s shop, and Bob’s Barber Shop. Two of these shops had two barbers working.
Dick’s first barber chair came from the basement of Bob Hudson’s Food Market at 112 W. Madison. The basement had been a barber shop from the 1890s until the 1950s.
Many highlights have dotted Dick’s sixty year career including a visit from a Country and Western star.
Singer and musician Billy Grammer and his brother stopped in for a haircut while pheasant hunting in Ringgold County in the late 1960s. Mr. Grammer had a big hit with “Gotta Travel On” in 1959 and a bigger hit with “I Wanna Go Home” in 1963. Bobby Bare recorded “I Wanna Go Home” as “Detroit City” in 1963.
Billy Grammer was a fifty-year member of the Grand Ole Opry and played a couple of songs while he was in the shop.
Hollywood actress Hilary Swank brought her father Stephen Swank in for a haircut once and Dick became a star himself when he was selected as one of the ten best barbers in Iowa.
Our Iowa Magazine sponsored the contest in 2008 and Dick made it to the finals in the Best Barber in Iowa contest. Dick has photos and souvenirs from the event which was hosted by WHO radio’s Van and Bonnie.
In the early years, Dick used to give the kids a nickel after their haircut. He says this made them eager to jump up in the chair.
Dick also recalls the haircuts he gave at Clearview Home and Mount Ayr Health Care Center over the decades. His service goes all the way back to Sunny Slope which closed in 1975 after the new nursing home was built.
When asked about the most meaningful occurrence in the last sixty years, Dick beams and says, “My thousands of great customers!” That’s a lot of customers and even more haircuts.
Wife Theanna and daughters Carmen and Vonda are Dick’s biggest fans but there are many others. So, stop in, get “your ears lowered,” and wish Dick a Happy Sixtieth Anniversary in his old fashioned barber shop.
There aren’t many left.
