A Cut Above
story by Isabella Bartolucci
He could have retired 10 years ago. Nearing 70, Steve Cooper could have packed up his clippers, hung up his smock and turned off the lights at his 9th Street barber shop, never looking back. But that’s not what he wants.
“I do everything I want to do right now,” Steve says. “I can hardly imagine my life without it.”
Cooper’s Barber Shop stands as a fixture in this town of almost 60,000 people. At $8, the prices are cheap and the cuts are good. Cooper’s is the busiest of the four barbershops in downtown Owensboro.
The small, street-front store can barely hold five people without it feeling crowded. Customers seem to like that; many of them already know the person waiting in the metal chair beside them.
Gordon Black comes to get his hair cut every two weeks. “I’ve been coming here for 15 or 16 years, ever since I moved back to town,” he says. “There’s a good atmosphere here. Cooper gives a good haircut, it’s fun, I can listen to the stories, and the price is right.”
Steve stands around the same barber chair from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., rarely leaving that three-foot radius. The gray-haired, soft-spoken man listens to his customers and doesn’t say much other than, “There you go, young fella,” as he folds up the barber’s cape.
“I guess everyone is cut out for something,” Steve says. “This is what I’m good at.”
Steve Cooper, the owner and barber at Cooper's Barber Shop, trims hair at his shop in downtown Owensboro. Steve has been a barber for 48 years.
Debbie Williams comforts her autsistic grandson Beau Adams Ickard, 9, while he waits in line to get his hair cut at Cooper's Barber Shop in downtown Owensboro. "Steve is patient with Beau and has a good demeanor around him," Debbie says.
Marvin Moseley rests his feet on the metal base of the barber's chair at Cooper's Barber Shop in downtown Owensboro.
Spencer Damme, 9, cringes as Steve Cooper cuts his hair with a pair of clippers at Cooper's Barber Shop in downtown Owensboro. Spencer was born with developmental delays and didn't talk until he was almost 4, but now he enjoys talking with Steve.
Steve Cooper, the owner and barber at Cooper's Barber Shop, puts shaving cream on Ray Westerfield's sideburns before he can trim them. Ray, the town constable, and his father both get their hair cut at Cooper's.
Bill Drewery, one of Steve Cooper's regular customers, finds a quiet spot to catnap while waiting in line for a haircut at Cooper's Barber Shop in downtown Owensboro.