Sterling's front-porch barber retires after 50 years; COVID-19 requirements hasten his departure

STERLING – At all of 17 years old, Randy Meeks decided he'd had enough of others telling him what to do.

Meeks went his own way, and over the past 50 years, he’s shown many others a different direction in life. Hair styling was his vocation at his Bushwackers Hair Salon, but he likely would have had as much success as a counselor.

As a doctor? Absolutely not.

“When they started doing this where I had to check them with a thermometer, and all that; I’m not a doctor,” Meeks said. “I’m a barber. Bottom line. That’s not my job.”

Meeks knew his styling and scissor-snipping days were about over, but the increased paperwork that comes with running a business during the pandemic helped solidify his decision to retire.

Meeks always prided himself on keeping his hair and his brother's in tip-top shape, and before he graduated from Sterling High School in 1970, he searched through a card file of careers in the guidance office.

"I thought, ‘I could be my own boss.' Then [I found] barber school," he said.

Hard work makes a living, Meeks said, and he started working with that philosophy as a grocer at Eagle Country Market in Rock Falls. When the Super-Valu just a few stores down had an opening, he took that on while also working at Eagle.

“I got caught,” Meeks said. “You were not supposed to work at the competition.”

Then came barber school in East Moline, and not too long after that he had his first apprenticeship at The King’s Den, on the same block as the former Randolph Hotel in downtown Sterling.

Before then, barber shops were for simple hair cuts, but owner Larry Musgrave and Meeks started the first styling services in town.

Meeks’ wife, Jeanne, soon came into his life. Not much hair was being trimmed back in the day, especially in the back, and being a stylist seemed to be the next best thing in hair care.

“When he started in the '70s and '80s, long hair was a big thing,” Jeanne said. “There were comments made that this wasn’t a good time to get into it because people have long hair. They still wanted a style, even though it was long.”

Randy and Jeanne married on July 1, 1973 and started their family of four children. Then one day in 1980, Meeks decided he wanted to be his own boss and left Musgrave.

“I went to him, didn’t undermine him or anything, and said, ‘Larry, I think it’s time for me to go. I think I want to be out on my own.’”

Meeks opened Bushwhackers on East Fourth Street next to The Palms tavern and had his own staff.

Eventually he became a one-man operation, and in 1991 he moved the salon, and his Wahl clippers, to his front porch – with a single barber’s chair on one end and a waiting area on the other – a few blocks east and one block down at 1810 E. Third St.

Between his salon business and flipping houses on the side, Meeks provided a quality living for his family. Their four children all went to private school and became ministers, and their children have given him and Jeanne 15 grandchildren.

“I came from a family that worked hard,” Meeks said. “I grew up in a family where you worked your butt off, and that’s all I knew.”

One son, Aaron, is the worship pastor at Harvest Time Bible Church, where Jeanne is its longtime pianist; Randy’s uncle, Dalmus Meeks, was its longtime pastor.

“It’s an amazing thing to be able to walk out on your front porch and feed your family,” Jeanne said. “We’re amazed at what all it has provided.”

“A lot of people would bare their soul to him,” Aaron added.

Faith is strong in the family, and it’s helped people find improved lives. One of Meeks’ customers, Brian McWethy, sat in the barber’s chair one August day in 1993 and had a big decision to make: Not, how did he he wanted his long hair to turn out, but was he going to follow the Lord, or not?

Customer and barber would discuss the existence of all things faith during many haircuts, and Meeks eventually flipped McWethy from a nonbeliever to a follower of Christ.

“I was always asking questions and trying to debate him to prove this stuff wasn’t real,” McWethy said. “He said, ‘Brian, I’m done answering questions. Today is the day. You either need to accept Christ as your lord and savior, or recant it. That’s what you need to do.’”

McWethy sat in the chair while Meeks tended to his hair.

“After all the research I did, I still didn’t open a Bible yet, I thought that it takes more faith not to believe than it does to believe, and then I gave my life to Christ.”

McWethy is now the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Amboy.

Meeks' joints can take a break now, but it will be hard not to see his familiar customers, some who have been with him since his King's Den days.

“I enjoyed it. I like my people,” he said. “It hurts me when I’m not there. I have an unbelievable amount of people that know me, and I miss them. It’s going to be hard.”