KILGOROUND
LINDA BALLARD

"Of all things," said Mrs. Vernon L. Dean, "I love all people. I do not see color - I see people. It's just  who I am."

Mrs. Dean has just celebrated her 40th anniversary in her beauty shop called LaChunce's located on Sanders Street. But, she will quickly tell you she has put in far more years as a beauty operator than the award depicts.

She was born in Dallas to Clifford and Frankie Darden Bradford and when she was five, they moved to the Harris Chapel Community which is now Lake Cherokee. When Vernon was eight, the family moved on into Kilgore.

Like most men during that time, her father was a farmer, and her mother worked at Gregg's Steam Laundry & Cleaners and other cleaners in the area.

Her father passed away at the age of 44.

"I was very active in school," said Vernon. "But, I never made anything but an incomplete in

history. At the time, I never thought it was important although I excelled in everything else," she laughed. Vernon participated in the school choir and a quartet and one year was crowned beauty queen of the school.

Vernon finished high school at Kilgore Colored High and then spent one year in Texas College at Tyler. "My mother worked hard to try to pay my expenses to college, but it was too much for her," said Vernon. "I married Willie Dean after he got out of the service and it helped take the pressure off my mother.

After marriage, she went to Modern Beauty College in Tyler where she was crowned beauty queen of the college. "After graduating I worked for three years at Addie Morris Beauty Shop on Sixth Street. Willie built my shop for me, where I still work after forty years.

"I never had gossip in my shop," said Vernon. "When you are the only operator, it is easy to keep it out. And good operators become many things besides hairdressers. They are first of all good listeners, psychiatrists, nurses and whatever the patron needs at the time. I always set my appointments as one on one and when that person left my door nothing was repeated and I cleared my mind of all that was said to prepare for the next one coming in. My customers have come from all over - Beaumont, Dallas, Longview, Kilgore and all around. I would like to think that is the reason they come to me.

"I have always loved church," said Vernon. "When I was two and a half years old, my mother had me dressed for church and set me on the bed to wait for her. My bonnet was hanging on the bed post and I reached up for it and off to church I went. My mother was looking for me and asked our neighbor if she had seen me." "Oh, yes," she replied. "I tried to stop her, but she told me she was going to her church." "When mom got to the church, there I sat on the front row, with my bonnet on crosswise…"

Vernon's only sister had Huntington's disease and for twenty seven years she attended to her at the nursing home. "I told her one time, that I never wanted her to think I was tired of caring for her. But, I asked her if it had been me, would she have watched over me for 27 years. She could not say, "no," but could grunt hunh, huh," laughed Vernon.

Through her son, a prison ministry has been formed in which Vernon and her husband goes to Palestine every weekend as part of their love for the ministry.

"One of my favorite patrons, whom I call Mother Tolbert, told me something I'll never forget - "You can not serve God until you serve His people." "I love all people," said Vernon. "It's just who I am."

+++

HAPPY birthday today to

Doyle Laney, C.H. Welch, Jan Brannon, Jeanene Rhodes Brooks, Jeff Waits, Jessica Linson, Robert Johnson, Alicia Lee, Judy White, Steve Daniel, Sandy Howard, Molly Peyton, Amber Zoller, Virginia Wright, Jerry Martin, Joshua Conlee, Steve Herring, Rev. Robert Besser, Terry Hedrick, Logan Ligon