Sue Bahm put her own twist on “Shop Emporia.”
Bahm, now the former owner of Shear Designers beauty shop, commuted to Emporia once a week after she and her husband, James, moved to the Kansas City area during the Santa Fe Railway’s downsizing and buyout of Emporia employees.
Sue Gilligan Bahm, who was reared in the Hartford area and worked as a cosmetologist in Emporia for more than 40 years, couldn’t quite bring herself to desert her clients completely after the move.
“So I drove down every week for 13 years,” Bahm said in a recent interview. “It’s 230 miles, round-trip.”
The weekly appointments kept her in touch with her friends and family on a regular basis. She kept a small nightcase full of essentials at the home of Bev and Bob Durham, with whom she often stayed overnight. It was especially convenient when the weather and roads turned bad and prevented her from going home to Mission.
Bahm laughed as she talked about the hazards of the commute and driving to Emporia on slick roads or through snowstorms.
“Then I’d get down there after driving through snow or rain or driving through something horrible, and everybody would cancel because they didn’t want to get out in the weather,” she said. “Thank goodness I always had a place to stay with Bob and Bev.”
Her trips to Emporia on Wednesdays held a multiple purpose; she also was a member of the St. Patrick’s Day Committee, and could attend the Wednesday evening meetings to plan for the annual parade and its accompanying fundraisers for community projects.
“I did shop Emporia when I was down there most of the time,” Bahm added. “A lot of time I’d forget something, so JCPenney, here I come.”
Though the weekly trip held its own downside of drudgery and occasional dangers, selling Shear Designers did not seem like a viable alternative.
Many of her clients had been with her since she got her license from Vernon’s School of Cosmetology in Wichita and, later, through her purchase of then-Village Beauty Salon from Barb and Harold Haber in 1979. Like most mothers, Bahm places time and events by their relationship to the birth of a child.
“My main one — and I’ve done her hair since before (Bahm’s daughter) Tina was born — and I’ve done her hair 42 years or more, and that’s Marilyn Buchele,” Bahm said.
Ann Fullen and the late Teresa Didde also were customers almost from the start, as were others; Bahm stopped herself from trying to name all of them, for there were too many.
Buchele has made the commute to Kansas City twice since Aug. 1, when Bahm sold the shop to former employee Becky Peters and, Bahm noted, Buchele took advantage of the trip by taking in shows in Kansas City.
Peters has re-named the business and kept Shear Designers’ telephone number and all of its stylists and specialists, including Bahm’s brother Ronnie Gilligan, Joan Williams, Janice Jaggard, Jane Mohling, Kathy Frizell and Pam Carter.
“Envi Salon, that’s short for environmental because we’re trying to go more green,” Peters said, explaining the name change.
Peters, the daughter of Jim and Cookie Price, was born and reared in Emporia; she, too, graduated from Vernon’s School of Cosmetology.
“We’re going to be putting in new flooring and more efficient lighting,” said Peters, who will see double duty as stylist and pedicurist. “We’re going to have pedicure stations that are eco-friendly. Instead of the big spa pedicure chairs, it’s going to be bench seating with big pedicure bowls.”
Peters and Carter also will do manicures, in addition to hair.
Bahm is comfortable selling the business to Peters.
“We knew her work was good,” Bahm said. “She was easy to get along with. I had a chance to end that mileage ...”
So far, the shop’s former owner is enjoying staying in Mission on Wednesdays and working Fridays only at the Grand Court retirement home in the Kansas City area.
The home houses about 450 people, including some Emporians, like Ray and Jolene Pauley. Bahm is allowed to attend to outside clients there, too, when she has time.
And Bahm has stayed in touch with the Emporia crowd through e-mails, kidding them about the change that has taken place.
“I try to sit down and write the gang,” she said. “My first note was, ‘I’ve only filled up my car with gas once.’”