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July 19, 2008

Salon marks 60 years in Danville

Beauticians saw many hairstyles over the years

BY CAROL ROEHM

DANVILLE — Back in 1948, Bea Reid certainly must have been familiar with the hairstyles of the day, such as finger waves, pin curls and pompadours.

The Danville business Reid started and operated, Elite Style and Color Beauty Salon at 2A North Shore Terrace, is marking its 60th year in business this month.

Reid died in 2003, but her memory lives on at the salon that is now owned by her daughter and son-in-law, Diana and Steve Cannon.

“She had quite a reputation,” Steve recalled.

Back in the 1940s, Reid opened the Bea Reid Beauty Shop at the Van-Voorhees Building, which used to be located at 501 N. Vermilion St.

“Dick Van Dyke and his family lived in the same building, and she did both his mother’s and grandmother’s hair,” Steve said.

Reid then relocated her beauty parlor in the early 1960s to the Holland Building at the corner of North Vermilion and Williams streets and renamed it The Petite.

Reid eventually moved her beauty shop to its current location on North Shore Terrace in the late 1960s.

There, she and her husband Walter first rented space in the building that they shared with Evelyn Gibson, who ran a gift shop in half of the building.

“Walter played a big part, too,” Steve said. “He did all of the maintenance at the beauty parlor.”

When Gibson died, the Reids purchased the building where the Elite Style and Color Beauty Salon is today.

“I don’t think there are any other beauty shops in Danville that’s been open as long,” he said.

“It was one of the first businesses that far north,” he said. “The A&W; root beer stand and a gas station were there, and other than that, it was outside of Danville.

“They watched the place grow up around them,” Steve said.

“We could have sold it and closed it down, but we had so many requests from the customers and the people who work there that we kept it open for the patrons,” he said.

“We love Danville. Diana was born and raised there,” he said. “We have one customer who has been coming there for 50 years.”

That customer is Judy Haton of Danville.

“I started going there before I graduated high school,” Haton said. “I had a ponytail in high school, but then it was short.

“You had to tease it to get it high,” she recalled of her earlier hairstyle.

“I always look forward to going there,” she said of the salon.

“I miss (Bea) a lot, but there’s a nice bunch of girls that are there now,” she said. “We bond a lot and discuss everything.”

Seven beauticians, including five hairstylists, a manicurist and a skin care specialist work at the salon.

“Most of the operators have been here a long time,” said stylist Susan Bond, who has worked at the salon for 35 years.

Other longtime salon employees include Pam Elder, a stylist for 34 years; Amy Tolson, a manicurist for 31 years; and Judy McCarty, a stylist for 20 years.

“We’ve gone from the curler set to the blow dryer and from the curling iron to the flat iron,” Bond said.

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