Libertyville's “Greatest Barber” Retires

EMPTY NEST - By Curt Swarm

Jim Dougherty, known as Libertyville's Greatest Barber, retired after 62 years cutting hair in the same town in the same location.  On Sunday, July 30, Libertyville threw a barber-pole retirement celebration for Jim Dougherty in the town's old elementary school building, with event center now known as The Last Bell.  Many of the people attending went to grade school there, so the retirement party was full of reminiscences.  Stories abounded. 
“Grandma and Grandpa had a cafe close to Jim's barbershop.  It was the old bank building.  The vault was still there in a room with one-foot thick walls.  The farmers came to town in the morning and had a coffee klatsch at the cafe.  Well, Grandma and Grandpa wanted to go on vacation.  They would have to shut the cafe down for a week.  But where would the farmers go for their morning coffee?  Grandma and Grandpa simply took their big coffee pot over to Jim's barbershop, and the farmers went there for coffee.  Problem solved.”
“There was an employee for Van Buren County.  He was a foreman on the road crew.  He would cross the county line into Jefferson County on work time, and come to Libertyville to get his hair cut by Jim.  Well, he got caught, had his pay docked for a day, and warned that he was not to get his hair cut on work time.  But, he did it again.  Someone saw him and reported him to the Van Buren County Board of Supervisors.  Heck, he parked the county car right outside the barbershop.  This time he got fired.  He applied for unemployment but it was denied.  The story made the Des Moines Register.” 
Jim's grandfather, Bill Cooksey, was a barber in the '30s and '40s in the same building as Jim's barbershop.  Jim's brother, Marty, was a barber in Birmingham, and Jim's nephew, Scott Wilson, was a barber in Minnesota.  So, Jim came by it naturally.  When he was in junior high, he knew he wanted to be a barber.  He never considered anything else.  Barbering was his only job.  Two days after graduation from high school in Fairfield in 1960, age 18, he went to barber school in Des Moines for six months, then apprenticed for two years in Ottumwa, Fairfield and Mt. Pleasant.  In 1962 he took over his grandpa's old barbershop in Libertyville (the town of Independence).  People told him he would go broke, but Jim showed'm, by golly.  He charged one dollar for a haircut.  At retirement, 62 years later, the price was $15. 
He also had a barbershop in Douds, where he went once a week, on Mondays.  So he served the people of Douds, and if someone in either town needed a haircut, and Jim's shop was closed, they always knew they could go to the other town.
 Jim's barbershops were “walk-in” only—no appointments.  In fact, his shop didn't even have a phone.  One time there was a long line of men and boys waiting to get their hair cut.  A man second in line, motioned his buddy in the rear of the line to come up and take his place.  Jim said, “Naw, end of the line.”  That ended that.   
 In addition to a hundred or so townspeople and friends that showed up at Jim Dougherty's retirement celebration, there were Linda, his wife, and Jim and Linda's two children, Kim and husband, from Cedar Rapids, and Wendall and wife, from Kansas.  Both Kim and Kendall have one daughter each, Kinslie and Ella (Jim's grandaughters).  No, there doesn't seem to be another barber or beautician in the brood. 
According to Linda, Jim's wife, “He misses the people.  Jim wants to go somewhere every day.  Mowing does keep him busy, though.  He likes to ride the lawn mower.”  (Reminiscent of cutting hair perhaps?)             
Libertyville's Mayor, Kevin Synder, presented a plaque to Jim Dougherty for 62 years of faithful service to Libertyville and the surrounding area, as Libertyville's Greatest Barber. 
 “Thank you Jim for 'COMB'ing!”