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25 YEARS AGO
October 2,1980
In his 50 years of snipping and trimming, Marion Watts has left a trail of hair that stretches from the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific to the Blue Ridge foothills of Rappahannock. A barber in the county for 36 years, Watts celebrated a half century in the business in September... Now the red and white pole goes round and round again in front of the apartment building next door to Washington’s post office, a flag marking one of the county's unofficial landmarks. Watts started his career at a Richmond barbering school in 1930. A native of Lynchburg, he set up shop first in Culpeper, a long way from home. But that was just the first jump. He put thousands and thousands of more miles between his barberchair and southwest Virginia with the outbreak of World War II. Death, Taxes and Haircuts One of the constants in this life is a regular haircut. Only baldies can ignore the clippers. Hair keeps right on growing through times of crisis, through depression, inflation, recession--and war. Without Marion Watts, hundreds of sailors in the pacific would have been forced to pull away from their gun sights to brush the hair out of their eyes. For 37 months, he barbered on the USS Massachusetts, a destroyer with a crew of 2,900. In between 27 major clashes at Formosa, Saipan, the Fiji Islands, New Guinea, Okinawa and other Pacific battle sites, Watts worked full time to keep hairlines in compliance with Navy regulations. 'We didn't necessarily have to cut it real short, just off their necks and off their ears" he reported. The war took priority over trims, of course, and during engagements with the enemy, "Mighty Mamie's" barbershop closed. Watts then traded his scissors for a battle station, manning phones on the third deck. Appointments were often interrupted. 'We were the first out and the first to leave" he said of the Massachusetts and her crew, noting that they never even struck land during their last year in action. . Watts left the Navy and her battlewagons behind at the close of World War II and returned to Virginia to open a barbershop in Washington, building the red brick office and apartments which now house the county's welfare department. ... Tbnsorial Artist
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