GREENVILLE, Michigan — The barber’s chair is a place for stories. The best stories at Bill’s Barber Shop come from the man who’s been holding the clippers for the longest time.
“I think I talk too much,” said Bill Brown, who sat in the chair himself on a Wednesday afternoon in Greenville. “The guys tell me, ‘If you cut hair as fast as you talk, you’d be a millionaire.'”
Brown turned 97 on Tuesday. Leftovers from the celebration are still on the counter: cake, strawberry cupcakes and “cake, beautiful cake.”
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“Our legacy is one of longevity,” Brown said, citing his mother and grandfather, who both lived to be in their 90s. His older sister is 98.
“I’m not worried (about death) because the Bible says that a man born of a woman must die,” Brown said.
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Brown was born with a heart defect and always wanted to make it big. It took him several attempts to get into the military. When the Korean War broke out, he got his chance and was selected to serve in the US Army.
“The best thing that ever happened to me was that they finally sent me,” Brown said. “I traveled halfway around the world.”
When he returned to the States and enrolled in barber school years later, that steadfastness remained with him.
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“I couldn’t take my tools out of the barbershop because I was violating the quarantine and breaking the law,” Brown said, referring to COVID-related business closures during the pandemic. “‘You’re saying I can’t do this?’ They say, ‘That’s right.’ I told him to go to hell. I’m still going to work.”
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The razors in his shop will run as long as he’s around. There are more stories to tell, and there’s room on his walls for barbershop and military memorabilia.
“I was in that barbershop with God – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit – and Bill Brown,” he said. “I live by grace and grace alone.”
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