It started with racism – and with cutting a poodle’s hair.
Eddie Flowers broke a femur while serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. The Veterans Administration gave him a test, after his discharge, to assist with job retraining and Flowers did well, he said.
“They asked what job I wanted to do, and I said, ‘Electrician,’” Flowers said. “They said they’re not letting blacks do that. So I said, ‘Carpenter,’ and they said the same. Finally, I said, ‘I cut a little hair,’ and they sent me to barber school.”
After training at then-segregated Moler Barber College in downtown St. Louis, Flowers opened Golden Shears Barber Shop, renting space at its present location, 8713 Riverview Blvd. In 1985 he bought the building, which occupies a block along the green parkway of Riverview.
A handful of years later, his daughter Dionne Flowers came home for the summer after studying a year in Columbia at the University of Missouri. On a whim, she gave her poodle Peaches a haircut. “It was torturous,” she said, but her father thought the dog looked pretty good when she was finished.
“He told me if I can cut dog hair, I can cut human hair,” Dionne said.
Her father enrolled her in the Missouri School of Barber and Hair Styling, to the daughter’s dismay.
“I never thought I was artistic – I can’t even draw a stick figure,” Dionne said. “Barber school scared me to death.”
She called her grandmother (since deceased), Margurite McCray, to complain – “Daddy’s making me go to barber school!” – and though it was agreed she should continue to pursue higher education, she stayed in barber school, too.
“It’s a skill no one can take away from you,” her father advised.
The entire family’s fortunes would change dramatically after Dionne transferred to the University of Nevada – Las Vegas in 1991 and her parents came to visit. On the highway to Vegas, Eddie and Charlotte Flowers stopped to assist at a roadside accident and were themselves struck by a tractor trailer. Charlotte was most seriously injured, and Dionne decided to move back home to help with her mother’s recovery.
Dionne was 30 credit hours away from completing a degree in hotel and restaurant management, but at that time no university in the St. Louis area offered a bachelor’s degree program in that subject where she could transfer. So it was back to barber school. She completed that program in 1992, she said, “and I’ve been cutting hair ever since.”
The family also took some of the settlement from Charlotte’s injuries and opened a banquet hall in the second floor of the building on Riverview, named Charlotte’s Banquet Hall in her honor. That business went well until the economy spun into the Great Recession following the mortgage-back security bubble burst. “We went from having maybe three parties a month,” Dionne said, “to having maybe one party every three months.”
The source of their banquet business, when it was going well, was the other family business: politics. Eddie Flowers was first elected Democratic committeeman of the 2nd Ward in 1991, after being recruited by Milton Svetanics. Dionne Flowers was first elected Democratic committeewoman of the 2nd Ward in 1996, and first ran for alderwoman (and won) in 1999 when Nancy Weber decided not to run. She has been reelected ever since and continues to serve on the board.
The family’s political connections also bring business to the barber shop. Eddie has cut the hair of Harold Crumpton, former St. Louis city NAACP president, for nearly 50 years. Dionne still barbers Claude Browne, city NAACP activist and political operative. Mayor Francis Slay is another regular clients of hers.
“He says his wife likes the way I cut his hair,” Dionne said of the mayor. “He’s not picky.”
Dionne also barbers aldermanic President Lewis Reed, Slay’s most recent mayoral challenger, as well as the man Reed beat at the polls to win his current seat, Jim Shrewsbury.
“In barber school, they tell you, ‘Don’t talk about politics, religion or gossip,’” Dionne said. “That’s all we talk about.”
Golden Shears even went bi-partisan after Eddie’s outrage at the Monica Lewinsky scandal made him defect to the Republican Party. He has not won many converts to the GOP in this North City Democratic enclave. “People come here to hear the voice of reason from me,” Dionne said, “and to hear whatever he is polluting the world with.”
Not another Ground Zero
The Flowers’ building on Riverview was the scene of an impromptu protest that could have combusted into a riot, recently, after the fatal St. Louis police shooting of Kajieme Powell on August 20. Dionne witnessed the shooting while trying to get some customers safely into her shop. Powell came out of 6 Stars Market, a tenant in the Flowers’ building, wielding a knife. Two St. Louis police officers shot and killed Powell when he continued to advance towards them, Dionne said.
“It happened so fast,” she said. “I would not vilify the police, and I would not vilify the victim. His family are my constituents, and I am concerned for them.”
Two other North City aldermen, Chris Carter and Antonio French, responded immediately and helped to calm an angry crowd that formed in front of the market. St. Louis was on edge after the fatal Ferguson police shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown on August 9, the resulting protests and the initially brutal St. Louis County police response to the protests. Dionne credited Carter, French, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson and the citizens themselves for defusing the situation on Riverview before it exploded.
“I believe the police investigation was upfront at the beginning,” Dionne said, “and I also have to commend the citizens. I believe they thought this was not going to be another Ground Zero, and they all fought for that.”
As a result, 6 Stars Market, Charlotte’s Banquet Hall and Golden Shears Barber Shop remain open for business, rather than being charred relics of protest like the QuikTrip at West Florissant Boulevard and Canfield Drive in Ferguson. There is a small memorial for Powell at the edge of the parking lot outside the barber shop that sometimes receives a visit and social media post from Ferguson protestors.
On the job, however, Dionne is not a shooting witness or an alderwoman. She is a tradeswoman with a valuable set of skills.
“I’m a barber,” she said. “People like my haircuts. Curly, straight, long, short – bring it to me, I can cut it.”
Her father added from the adjacent chair, “She’s basically almost as good as me.”
Golden Shears Barber Shop is located at 8713 Riverview Blvd. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Call 314-867-1140.
