{"id":46999,"date":"2025-11-12T21:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/46999\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T21:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:47:12","slug":"el-paso-icon-estine-davis-dies-at-92","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/46999\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso icon Estine Davis dies at 92"},"content":{"rendered":"

Estine Davis, a pioneering El Paso businesswoman and the barber to generations of Black boys and men in El Paso, died Monday night, her son Micheal Davis said. She was 92.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as I make a living from it, I\u2019m going to cut hair,\u201d she said in a\u00a02020 interview with El Paso Matters<\/a>, ahead of a community celebration to commemorate her birthday.<\/p>\n

Davis moved to El Paso when she was 6 years old and was educated at Douglass School, El Paso\u2019s school for Black children during segregation. Known as Miss Estine, she owned Estine Eastside Barber Shop from the mid-1960s \u2013 she long ago lost track of the year \u2013 until her retirement in 2022.<\/p>\n

The barbershop on Piedras Street near Alameda Avenue was the last remnant of a once-thriving area of Black-owned businesses in what is now Central El Paso. Much of El Paso\u2019s historic Black neighborhood was destroyed during the construction of Interstate 10 in the 1960s, and some of the remnants \u2013 though not the barbershop \u2013 are targeted for demolition in a planned expansion of the roadway.<\/p>\n

The barbershop is now the focal point of the\u00a0Black Businesses Living Museum,<\/a>\u00a0created by her son Micheal. He said his mother was one of the first El Paso Black women to own her own business.<\/p>\n

\"Estine<\/p>\n

Estine Davis gives Salvador Rodriguez Meza a trim at her barber shop, Estine Eastside Barber Shop, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, at 106 North Piedras Street in El Paso.<\/p>\n

More: ‘You’re meeting people all over the country.’ Estine Davis on her years running a barbershop<\/a><\/p>\n

Among her customers at the barbershop were athletes and entertainers who passed through El Paso, including Little Richard and members of the Harlem Globetrotters.<\/p>\n

She also cut hair for a number of El Pasoans who went on to prominence, including members of the 1966 Texas Western NCAA championship basketball team, future Army Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard, future El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen, and future bestselling author Ron Stallworth.<\/p>\n

In a 2020 interview, Stallworth recalled a visit to Davis\u2019 barbershop a few years earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sitting in her chair, she\u2019s cutting my hair, and I made a derogatory remark about a mutual acquaintance of ours. And next thing I felt on the back of my head was Estine\u2019s hand slapping me. And I said, Miss Estine, I\u2019m 63 years old. And she said, \u2018I don\u2019t care, you\u2019re still one of my babies and I don\u2019t like you talking like that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis also founded Estine Fashion Models and the Miss Black El Paso Pageant.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe believed in uplifting and encouraging young people, especially women,\u201d said Ouisa Davis, an El Paso attorney who knew Estine Davis for decades but is not related to her. \u201cShe also had one of the first comportment classes so we would know how to behave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved her wit, sense of humor and the way she could call out a situation. She did not suffer fools gladly! May she rest in peace,\u201d Ouisa Davis said.<\/p>\n

Estine Davis is scheduled to be inducted in the El Paso Black Hall of Fame in February. She will now be inducted posthumously, said Monica Tucker, owner of Black El Paso Voice and a founder of the El Paso Black Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer life on the border reminds us that we, too, can create a legacy to be remembered. One thing she was proud of was her longevity in business and the Miss Black El Paso Pageant, which is currently on hiatus but will be back. She touched many lives and had stories to tell,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n

Davis always spoke her mind. \u201cI say what I feel like. If you don\u2019t like it, I really don\u2019t care,\u201d she said in the 2020 interview with El Paso Matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would get personal and say, \u2018Who you dating these days?\u2019\u201d Pittard, the retired Army general from El Paso, said in 2020. \u201cAnd I might mention a name and because the African-American community is so small, it\u2019s like, oh, I know her. She\u2019s no good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Estine Davis, trailblazing El Paso businesswoman dies at 92<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Estine Davis, a pioneering El Paso businesswoman and the barber to generations of Black boys and men in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[27201,27200,27202,138,140,27203,139,27196,27198,27197,27199],"class_list":{"0":"post-46999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-black-owned-businesses","9":"tag-dana-pittard","10":"tag-douglass-school","11":"tag-el-paso","12":"tag-el-paso-headlines","13":"tag-el-paso-matters","14":"tag-el-paso-news","15":"tag-estine-davis","16":"tag-estine-eastside-barber-shop","17":"tag-micheal-davis","18":"tag-ouisa-davis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}