Loving what you do, and a community of family led to a surprise anniversary party held in Susie Lemley’s honor for 50 years in business for Susie’s Beauty Salon in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania. Clients, friends, and family all joined Susie at the Mt. Morris Volunteer Fire Hall on the first Saturday in May for a great celebration. The hall was adorned with pictures of the last 50 years, showing Susie, family, and friends stretching back for at least three generations.
Organized by Susie’s sister in spirit, Nancy, and her daughter Carrie, with help from numerous family members and friends, everyone sat down to food and desserts a plenty. Keeping the surprise a secret from Susie was the hardest part but to her delight when she entered the hall to cheers and well wishes from all the lives she has touched throughout the years in her community.
Susie and Nancy grew up as ‘sisters in spirit’ in the community of Mt. Morris. They were both only children and bonded when Nancy’s parents rented a house next to Susie’s parents. The girls developed a lifelong bond. According to Nancy, Susie had a love for all things beauty. She was a Coal Queen interested in hair and modeling. In 1971, Susie attended Maison Frederick Beauty Academy in Uniontown, with a dream to become a beautician.
In those days getting your license required traveling to Pittsburgh to take your state board exam. You had to have a model to demonstrate your knowledge of cutting hair, performing perms, and manicures. Susie turned to her lifelong friend Nancy to model. Nancy tells us you weren’t allowed to talk to each other during the testing, and everyone remarked that Susie would never pass as the girls would not be able to stop talking to each other. The girls developed a signal, coughing, for Nancy to let Susie know if she thought she forgot something required to pass the test. This led to a coughing fit for Nancy, which scared the test proctor but gave Susie the chance to let Nancy know she had it all under control. Having help from her family, Susie opened her shop in 1972 as a young wife and mother to two little girls.
Sitting to talk with Susie about still going strong after 50 years she shares, “I love what I do, my clients are my family, and I can never really see myself stopping.” Susie attributes her success over the five decades to being open minded and adapting to the changes. Over the years products became discontinued, styles changed, people grew old and passed. According to Susie, the hardest part of running her business is watching some of her clients over the years decline as they age and pass.
Susie was joined in her business 24 years ago by a young woman that grew up wanting to be just like Susie. As a child, Leslie Parker would cut and style the hair on her dolls and exclaim to her mother, “I’m Susie fixing peoples hair.” This childhood game led to a lifelong passion and eventually a partnership with Susie in her business. Upon completion of beauty school, beauty management school, and licensing for both Leslie became a welcomed addition to the business.
Many years have come and gone in Susie’s Beauty Salon with friends like family gracing the business with stories of lives lived, secrets told and kept, and love in abundance. Susie said she has only been closed for 10 weeks, during the pandemic, in all the 50 years she has been open. When clients inquire about her retirement, Susie says, “I’ll probably drop dead doing this job.” The client’s response? “Please don’t do it while you’re working on me!”
