Longtime Barber Al Barbier

Fifty years ago Al Barbier celebrated being a barber for 50 years, having first gone into the business in 1924. 

He started with a shop on Royal Street, then next on St. Charles Avenue, and for 11 years he was one of the barbers in the ground floor of the Whitney Bank building in New Orleans. He moved to Columbia Street in Covington in 1940, and re-located to a shop next to his home in Mandeville in 1968. I wrote the article below about him in 1974. 

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He was an enthusiastic gardener, and he was also an avid bicycle rider. His barber shop helped him remain very knowledgeable about a wide range of community topics. Here's the article I wrote about him back in 1972. Click on the image for a larger version.

A year later in 1973 I wrote this article about his gardening efforts.