Daniel Howard Jones was a precise barber who used scissors as something of a sculpturing tool for his older, more staid customers.
But he also could cut a mean "fade" for his younger customers, or give them their first bald "shine" look or any other rare -- and perhaps unorthodox -- style they chose. And he'd cut the hair of young and old customers with the same ease.
For nearly 50 years, Mr. Jones, 73, who died Sunday of cancer at the Veteran's Administration Hospital downtown, cut hair for men and women in the Baltimore area.
Since 1950, Mr. Jones, who lived in Northwest Baltimore, owned the three-chair Jones Barbershop in the 1900 block of Payson St., at Walbrook Avenue in West Baltimore.
The shop was a landmark of sorts, neighbors and friends said.
"It just kind of blended into the neighborhood. It was just accepted as part of this neighborhood, something that everyone knew," said Oliver Simeon, a resident of the Walbrook community and longtime friend.
Mr. Jones opened the shop at 8 a.m. every day but Sunday. By 8: 30, he usually had cut a half-dozen heads as a crowd waited patiently, friends and former customers said. He'd usually close at 8 p.m. The last heads of hair often were those of friends who had spent a good chunk of the day in the shop talking.
"It sometimes seemed that more people wanted to just go and sit than go there for a haircut," Mr. Simeon said. "Jones didn't care. He'd probably just as soon have had the company than he would the business."
Mr. Jones often hired area youths to sweep hair in his shop. He frequently gave free haircuts to the children of single mothers, and he regularly visited senior citizens' homes to do the same.
"He was just a good man who cared about and trusted people and wanted to like everyone he met," said Charles Brown, a friend. "I can't think of much more he wanted to do than what he was doing."
A native of Lumberton, N.C., Mr. Jones came to Baltimore in the late 1940s, after serving in the Army from 1943 to 1945.
He was briefly a laborer at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant, then was a barber at shops in West Baltimore and Turners Station before opening his shop.
"His prices were good, his cuts excellent," said one of his three sons, Quentin S. Jones of Baltimore. "It was a very warm and friendly place to go. He wouldn't quit doing your head until you were satisfied."
Though his goal was to retire Friday, which would have marked his 50th year cutting hair, Mr. Jones was forced by failing health to retire and close the shop in April.
Mr. Jones was a longtime member and deacon at Mount Ararat Baptist Church, 3008 Gwynns Falls Parkway, where services are scheduled for 10: 30 a.m. today.
He married Theresa Jane Thompson in 1947.
In addition to his wife and son, survivors include two other sons, ++ Morris N. Jones and Kelvin O. Jones, both of Baltimore; two daughters, Patricia A. Jones-Wise and Denise C. Frasier, both of Baltimore; three brothers, Edwin G. Jones and William K. Jones, both of Baltimore, and James E. Jones of Lumberton; two sisters, Ida Thompson of Brown Summit, N.C., and Marie McNair of Lumberton; seven grandchildren and one great-grandson.
Pub Date: 7/03/97
