Glenda Hargrove

Since Glenda Hargrove graduated from Dublin High School in 1962, she’s fixed clients’ hair in her beauty salon, raised three children, and now, as a home health aide, she helps elderly people with tasks they cannot do themselves. “I love to take care of people,” she said. “That’s just how it is.”

Hargrove knew when she was in high school that she’d like to go into the beauty industry. She would often fix her friends’ or neighbors’ hair, and when she graduated she decided to attend beauty school in Brownwood.

Once she graduated, her mother helped her buy a beauty salon in Comanche. Hargrove called it Fashion Beauty Parlour. For the next 25 years, the salon was a fixture of the community. “I was there from 7am to 7pm, and sometimes until 9,” she said. “I would do 70 heads of hair a week.”

Hargrove’s clientele shifted over the years. “It was mostly women at first, and then once beauty operations got to cutting men’s hair, we cut an awful lot of men’s hair.”

After 25 years in business, Hargrove decided to sell the shop, since she had recently had her third child, a daughter. “I wanted to take a little time and be with her, so I did,” Hargrove said.

But she didn’t stay out of work for long. “A friend of mine was going to be the director of nurses at a home health agency, and she knew I like to work.” Hargrove said. “She called me and asked me if I wanted to be a home health aide for her. And I said sure.”

Soon after, Hargrove started out with her new job, traveling around the area to the homes of elderly people who just needed a little extra help. “I go in, do some personal care, cook a meal, go to the grocery store, just little jobs they can’t do themselves,” she said.

At first, she would stay around an hour each day with each client, adjusting to give some people more hours if necessary. Hargrove now works 30 hours a week with one client, a 62-year-old woman who lives about 15 minutes away from her.

Hargrove is past retirement age, but plans to keep working for a few more years. “I’m 76, but I’ve always been pretty healthy,” she said. “I’m going to hang onto this work for a while longer. I love this job because you get to help so many people.”

Another perk of home health is that Hargrove’s salon experience is much in demand. “I do my clients’ hair,” she said. And she still does hair for friends and neighbors, even more now since the pandemic began. “I have enjoyed every job that I’ve ever done, or I wouldn’t be doing it now,” she said.

When Hargrove isn’t working or doing hair, she can often be found sewing or baking cakes and pies. She also enjoys spending time with her three grown children.

Her daughter Melissa Hargrove lives in Gorman, and her sons Ted and Todd Whatley both own houses in DeLeon. Ted works in the oilfield in West Texas, and Todd owns Farmers Insurance Agency in Weatherford. Hargrove’s husband of nearly 40 years, Donald Hargrove, passed away a few years ago.

For the past five years, Hargrove has been dating a man named Terry Johnson, who she met while out dancing one night. She’s currently working on selling her house in DeLeon, and will move in with Johnson in Abilene in the next couple of years. “He has a house out in the country with horses and dogs and cats and chickens,” Hargrove said.

Hargrove has good memories of growing up in Dublin in the 50s and 60s. “I lived in the country, by Proctor,” she said. “We loved to go to all the basketball games and stuff that the guys played. The gym was old and cold, but hey, we didn’t know the difference back then. We had a great time in school.”

Now, Hargrove attends school reunions whenever she can. Her advice to Dublin graduates is to stick with it. “Just hang in there and go be something great,” she said. But first, she said, “make sure you finish school.”

Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other graduates, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.