TURNING IN THE TOWEL: After 68 years, Earle calls it quits
It would be hard to predict what’s in store for Iva Earle, but one thing is for certain: She won’t be renewing her license with the state Board of Cosmetology this year.
Earle has been a cosmetologist since 1934, before licenses were required in Tennessee, which didn’t occur until 1939 when the state board was established. After all this time, Earle said it’s time to close her doors.
The decision came after an unexpected accident where Earle didn’t realize the seriousness of her injury until after she put in a day’s work. About three weeks ago before going to work, she fell and broke her arm.
“It hurt, but I did two perms,” she said, her arm now in a cast.
Due to the cast, she said this is as good a time as any to get out of the business, where she has done everything from tinting and bleaching to cutting hair and doing nail work.
“It’s awful,” she said of leaving, “and with a broken arm, it’s worse.”
Her career began perhaps as unexpectedly as it ended. Earle began learning the profession in Kansas after a friend taught her the tricks of the trade, but she found herself moving to the area in the winter of 1935 after she came here to visit her sister. That’s when she ended up meeting and marrying her husband, Pat.
She cut hair at the family’s business at 106 Sparta Street and the business moved to Walling Arcade and finally, was relocated to 109 N. Spring St., where the business has been located for about 50 years.
At Pat’s Beauty Shop, Earle knows she’s touched a lot of hair, but also many lives.
According to Tennessee State Board of Cosmetology Director Evelyn Griffin, Earle may be one of the longest-licensed cosmetologists working in the state – if the not the longest.
Earle’s license is No. 1936, meaning Earle was the 1,936th person to be licensed in 1939, and Griffin said she would not doubt that the other 1,935 people licensed before Earle are no longer working. Griffin said some of the state’s records have been destroyed, but is pretty sure about Earle.
“I’m about 99 percent sure. If there is anybody else who has worked that long in their own shop, I’m not aware of it,” Griffin said.
What kept Earle interested in working, more than anything, she said, was an ongoing communication with her many clients. And after her husband passed away, Earle said being in the business became something to do and a way to make friends.
And she certainly found a friend in client Edith Davies, who said she has been going to the shop for at least 15 years. Davies cites patience and an accommodating attitude towards customers – making appointments at their convenience – as reasons why she likes going there, but also said Earle is just plain nice.
“I’ve been going there for years and years and I really do think a lot of her because she’s been so nice to her customers. I loved her and I’ll just miss her a lot,” Davies said.
Earle’s feelings about missing her work and her clients are similar. She said it will be hard to close the doors for good after a sale tomorrow that seeks to sell some of the trade items.
“You know I’ll miss it. I had nice customers and they were friends as well,” she said. “People are saying, ‘We’ve come here so long and we’re going to miss it.’ She said statements like that make her feel, “like I wish I was back up there.”