Moore retires after 46 years

Barbara Wilkins Moore is just enjoying life after retiring from 46 years of being a beautician. Moore first established her business in 1956, after turning her homes laundry room into a beauty shop. Still at the same location, Moore is converting the shop back into a laundry room. [Click to enlarge]

Barbara Wilkins Moore, 77, of Hornersville has decided to retire from cosmetology after 46 years of serving the Hornersville community.

"It was a tough decision, especially after I had retired once already ten years ago," Moore said.

Moore and her family moved to her current residence back in January 1956. "I looked at the large room that was then a utility room and I told my husband that this was where I was going to put my beauty shop," she said.

Moore said that her husband kind of chuckled and said "Oh yeah."

"Back then not many women worked unless it was in the cotton field or at the house," Moore said.

"But being a beautician was something that I had always wanted to do," she added. So after three years, Moore said that she finally convinced her husband to change the large utility room into a beauty shop.

"It was 1959 when I attended the School of cosmetology in Kennett," she said. "And after that it was all up to me."

"Over the years I've had several people ask me what it takes to be a beautician and I've told them, a sense of humor," she laughed.

Moores said that everyone refers to beauty shop talk as gossip, "but we like to call it joys and concerns," she said.

"Back ten years ago when my doctor told me I had a heart condition, I gave it up for about three weeks, she laughed, but I just wasn't ready to give it up."

Now, Moore says she is ready. "I never thought I would be standing behind that chair for 46 years, but I've enjoyed every minute of it," she said.

"I am proud that after my husband passed away that I was established enough to provide for myself and not have to move. I was already in the business right here at my own house," she said.

"Working in this kind of business has brought me great pleasures, many friends, and lots of good memories," Moore said. "I hope that my patrons remember to come by and sit on the front porch with me so we can talk about our 'joys and concerns,'" she added.