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<\/p>\nTrailblazing El Paso businesswoman, owner of Estine\u2019s Barbershop, Estine Davis died Nov. 10 at the age of 92. Her funeral information has not yet been announced.<\/p>\n
A Sept. 20, 1982 El Paso Times article revealed that Davis was born in Pendelton, Texas in 1932 and moved to El Paso when she was 6 years old. Her mother died when she was born and her father was left to raise nine children. The oldest was 19.<\/p>\n
In that article she said she got her Social Security card when she was 11 years old. She worked in a nursery, did chores for neighbors, worked in a restaurant, a school cafeteria and trained to be a nurse\u2019s aide.<\/p>\n
Davis graduated from\u00a0Douglass School, the segregated school for Black students in El Paso. Davis\u2019s barbershop at 106 N. Piedras St., near Alameda Avenue became a hub for El Paso’s Black community.<\/p>\n
Known as Miss Estine, she owned and operated her barbershop from the mid-1960s until her retirement in 2022.<\/p>\n
The following is the most recent El Paso Times interview with Davis from June 17, 2021, after she was presented with a commendation from the Texas House of Representatives “for her contributions to the community.”<\/p>\n
El Paso barber Estine Davis has helped Black community with style for decades<\/p>\n
June 17, 2021, El Paso Times<\/p>\n
Stepping inside Estine Davis’\u00a0barbershop is like stepping back in time.<\/p>\n
Four red leather barber chairs wait to greet customers next to a shoe-shining chair and a 1950s-style rotary telephone. The wall of Estine Eastside Barber Shop,\u00a0106 N. Piedras St., displays dozens of framed items collected over time, including certificates, thank-you notes and a drawn portrait of Davis back when doo-wop still was a popular genre of music.<\/p>\n
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Estine Davis opens her barbershop, Estine Eastside Barber Shop, Thursday, Feb. 25, at 106 North Piedras Street in El Paso.<\/p>\n
When\u00a0Davis, now 88 years old,\u00a0looks toward Alameda Avenue out of\u00a0her\u00a0barbershop’s tall windows, she sees the memories she’s made during\u00a0the nearly 60\u00a0years that she’s owned it.<\/p>\n
She still remembers the troughs outside her shop, where her car now is parked, that held\u00a0water for horses. And she remembers a trading post that used to be across the intersection \u2014\u00a0and roller-skating down Piedras.<\/p>\n
Those memories haven’t dimmed.<\/p>\n
And now, Davis said,\u00a0“I see a bright\u00a0future to be in El Paso.”<\/p>\n
Davis, who has owned the\u00a0barbershop since 1962,\u00a0has cut thousands of people’s\u00a0hair since taking it over from her godfather. From entertainers like Little\u00a0Richard and the Harlem Globetrotters, to customers\u00a0who would go on to become public figures, including\u00a0El Paso police Chief Greg Allen, Hall of Fame college basketball coach Nolan Richardson, and “Black Klansman” author Ron Stallworth, Davis said everyone can\u00a0get their hair cut, regardless of who they are. Everyone is welcome.<\/p>\n
Davis, who is Black, was presented with a commendation Wednesday from the Texas House of Representatives “for her contributions to the community.”\u00a0The resolution was authored and passed by state Rep. Art Fierro, D-El Paso.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Estine Davis read a resolution given to her by state Rep. Art Fierro that recognizes the history of her business, Estine Eastside Barber Shop.<\/p>\n
Fierro said one of his constituents recommended her to his office.<\/p>\n
“Miss Davis is in a class by herself. This lady is amazing,” Fierro said. “Eighty-eight\u00a0years old and she’s running circles around us with her enthusiasm and her energy. I was just humbled to be in the room with her.”<\/p>\n
Davis was born in East Texas in 1932 and moved to El Paso when she was 6 years old. She graduated from\u00a0Douglass School, which was El Paso’s segregated school for Black students, before attending barber college in Tyler, Texas. When Davis returned to El Paso, she worked at numerous barbershops across the city before taking over her godfather’s shop. It became a gathering spot for El Paso’s Black community.<\/p>\n
Hair wasn’t the only thing Davis focused on. She’s left husbands behind, and during the 1980s, she started Estine Fashion Models.<\/p>\n
Also, Davis said, one of her\u00a0friends, Nelson Sanders, started a lot of the work for the\u00a0Miss Black El Paso Pageant. When Sanders became too ill to run it, he handed Davis the reins.<\/p>\n
“It was to help\u00a0the girls and give them some money to help (pay)\u00a0for\u00a0school when their parents didn’t have it,” Davis said. “At least buy the books themselves.”<\/p>\n
Davis said she knew what it meant to struggle with financial hardship while at college.<\/p>\n
“I\u00a0went to all these colleges around here and I ain’t finished none of them,” Davis said. “Them books costed more than going to school.”<\/p>\n
For more than 70 years, Davis has\u00a0been an active member of Shiloh Baptist Church, serving in various leadership positions. She also has created a number of floats for the Sun Bowl Parade and co-founded the nonprofit McCall Neighborhood Center in 1983.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Estine Davis has accolades hanging on her wall at her barber shop, Estine Eastside Barber Shop, Thursday, Feb. 25, at 106 North Piedras Street in El Paso.<\/p>\n
Despite all her accomplishments, Davis said the resolution from the state Legislature doesn’t mean a lot to her.<\/p>\n
“My time has passed, but it might open up eyes for others who are coming behind me and do better,”\u00a0Davis\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
To her son, Michael Davis, the commendation is a big deal\u00a0\u2014 especially knowing how few Black women owned their own businesses in the early-1960s.<\/p>\n
“If there’s anything I could say about that\u00a0little feisty woman who’s no taller than five feet two and a half, it’s that she has done things in the\u00a0community\u00a0over 50 years that many people would never be able to conceive,” said her son, a retired military colonel and president of Davis-Paige Management Systems.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0remembers spending a lot of his childhood in the barbershop. Working as a shoe shiner when he was 8 years old until he was 18, he said he remembers American pianist and vocalist\u00a0Earl Grant\u00a0asking his mother\u00a0for him by name.<\/p>\n
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Estine Davis takes a phone call at her business, Estine Eastside Barber Shop, on Thursday, June 17, 2021.<\/p>\n
Michael Davis said he also remembers how his mom would help an alcoholic who was in\u00a0the military. Every Saturday, his mother would look for him and help “clean him up.”<\/p>\n
“That was her mandate,” he\u00a0said. “She knew she didn’t look down on anyone. Maybe a few will look down on her, but that doesn’t\u00a0bother her very much. She was out there to try to do what’s right.”<\/p>\n
Davis’\u00a0barbershop has weathered many storms, the latest being the COVID-19 pandemic. Davis said five years prior to the pandemic, business was beginning to slow. Now, the pandemic has brought it to a near stop. Davis said she doesn’t know when people will walk through the door, but she’s always ready to cut hair.<\/p>\n
Some customers’ loyalty remains steadfast.<\/p>\n
Maurice Nelson said he tries to get his hair cut by\u00a0Davis every two weeks. Nelson, who is 71 and retired, also went to Douglass and knew her\u00a0family. As Davis reaches over him with scissors and an electric hair clipper, Nelson chats with her about politics and memories of where certain buildings used to be when they were kids.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Estine Davis gives Maurice Nelson a trim at her barbershop, Estine Eastside Barber Shop, 106 N. Piedras St., on Thursday, June 17, 2021. Nelson receives a haircut from Davis every two weeks.<\/p>\n
Wil Shelton, author of “The Silent Agreement,” a book that explores race equity in corporate America, said\u00a0barbers and stylists in Black communities offer a safe haven from daily microaggressions experienced at work and in public spaces.<\/p>\n
Davis said she doesn’t have any plans to retire, adding that she would get into trouble if she were to get lazy.<\/p>\n
“Work\u00a0makes you look better and makes you smarter,” she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
Davis works from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.<\/p>\n
And even as the Juneteenth national holiday was signed into law Thursday by President Joe Biden, Davis said she planned on working.<\/p>\n
“If they out there marching, I’m just going to march right in here and cut some hair,” she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpsotimes.com or 915-546-6179.<\/p>\n