WESTERN MICHIGAN
wo ladie head for
Inaneial indep nd nee
By DANNY COOK
COI!!!IHIf!dMt
On the comer of Walnut Street
and Portage Road sits a cluster of
stores and service agencies.
Also, there's a beauty shop called
Personal Touch, the focus Qf our
attention. Behind this collection
of chairs, dryers, curling irons,
.and such are two young wives
who dreamed of financial inde
pendence. Dreams do come
true--even in Kalamazoo.
lola Burnett, a lifelong resi
dent of Grand Rapids, graduated
from Cre ton High School, mar
ried her high school sweetheart,
and moved to Ka amazoo. Al
tbough she occasionally worked
outside the home, she was content
to be a wife and mother. As age
thirty beat at her door lola became
re tless.
"I had always been interested
in hair styling, ever since high
school, but since all of my high
school friends were pursuing it I
decided to learn about health oc
cupations, with intentions of be
coming a nurse." Burnett had to
forgo her plans when she got mar
ried.
Chic University, formerly
Tracy's Beauty School, granted
lola relief from her restlessness
and put her on the path to finan
cial independence. Four months
after graduation, in May of 1986
she became a licensed beautician.
"I WORKED AT 'F1ozella
Beauty Salon on East Main fer
one year. I managed it for another
year, give or take a month or so.
I met Rachel at my next place of
employment, Hair Expose Beauty
Salon, where we both rented
booth. This was a couple of
month after I had left
Flozella' ."
Hair Expo was located in the
Kalamazoo Center. Rachel
Smith remembers being glad to
see lola, another Black face
among the Center's mostly white
entepreneurs and ellen . Al
though they became friend their
background had major differen
ces. Rachel was born and raised
in Chicago. She became a mother
during high chool, and although
she married the father of her child
before graduation, they were oon
divorced.
Rachel' mother, also n med
Rachel, had been in the hair tyl
ing business for over twenty years
when her daughter left home for a
job at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Also, Rachel' older si ter, Cheri
Marshall. had been in the busi
ne s (or more than ten years.
"I picked up a lot from my
famjly being successful in the
business, not so much because I
was taught things but because I
was expo ed to them and just
picked them up."
After seperating from her hus
band, Rachel supplemented her
KFC job by styling hair on the
side. She eventually decided she
needed to get serious and go to
school. Aid To Familie With
Dependent Children (AFDC) be
came her ticket to financial inde
pendence. "I used AFDC as a
way up, not as a means of laying
up."
DURING HER year on
AFDC she attended Debbie's
School of Beauty Culture in
Chicago. After graduation,
R chel wor ed with her mother
and ister.
In August 1976, a few months
after claiming financial inde
pendence with a beautici n
license, Rachel remarried,
moving to Parkville, a small com
munity outside of Three Rivers,
Michigan. She ettled down to
become a housewife and mother.
Twelve years later, hen her
son turned sixteen, she returned to
the job market, beginning at
Eula's Beauty Salon in
Kalamazoo. Eight months later
he left, going to Hair Expo e.
As they look back over their
houlders, remembering when
they first beg n exploring the po -
sibility of co-owning a busines •
lola and Rachel knew the path
they were choosing was speckled
with disappointments. No bank
or financial institution would
bankroll their bu ine s with tart
up capital. leaving them to make
due With extending credit cards to
the limit. And queezing a penny
'til Lincoln cried out in pain.
While their husbands were
very supportative, doing the
plumbing and partition work in
their business, mo t of the work
fell to the ladle . "We laid carpet,
hung wallpaper, did the painting,
everything," lola remembers.
NEITHER OWNER recalls
any contlict between them,
despite having more than four
years behind them in their busi
ness, 8S equal owner/operators. In
a world where even husbands and
wives have conflicts, they've ob
viously found a formula for work
ing together smoothly.
This Is A New House
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'chur h' i
word, Ie i • to call ut. "The
church must pr ach the Word. We
mu t plug into the plantation m n
tality Iflictin lack in
U IT ED EGRO COLLEGE FU D
A ind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste.