Eileine Rhoades, owner of Eileine’s Beauty Shop, on the east side of the square in Gallatin, has been selected as "the other" grand marshal at this year’s Chautauqua. She was regrettably left out of the Sept. 15 North Missourian, which named Howard Houghton as grand marshal while failing to mention Eileine and her work in the Girl Scouts.
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Eileine took the oversight very well, saying, "I usually do slip under the radar. And that’s okay because I’m a very private person. I had a lady just the other day tell me, ‘I didn’t know your shop was here."
Which is odd, because Eileine’s has been in the same shop on the Gallatin business square for 35 years.
"I’m the last one on the square," she said. "Hales, Harlow Drug, Hass jewelry, Ben Franklin five and dime, the Phyllis shop, Davis Drug, Marshall Hardware and Danny Tucker’s Hardware, they’re all gone now."
Eileine works as she talks and while she’s trimming and styling the graying locks of a lady customer, she quips: "I’m still here because I’m too stubborn to leave. They can’t get rid of me. Like a bad penny."
That may be one reason. But there are other, far more important reasons for her longevity which her customers will mention, even if Eileine won’t.
"It’s because she’s so nice," said one lady waiting patiently under a hood hair dryer.
Another who came in for a wash and set, said, "She has a great tolerance for changing appointments. She’s always been so good about it. A lot of places won’t let you do that these days, you know."
One of her other two staff members in the shop, Linda Hughs, said, "It’s about much more than doing people’s hair. It’s about helping people and being there for them." (The other staff member is Sandy Vyrosteck.)
Besides her work at the beauty shop, Linda explains, Eileine also does hair for the elderly folks at the Daviess County Nursing and Rehab. If somebody living at home doesn’t have transportation, Eileen picks them up and brings them into the shop and takes them home. And if they can’t travel, she goes to them and does their hair in their own home.
Eileine was born and raised in Trenton. When she was in the eighth grade her family moved to Chillicothe. When she married, she and her husband moved to Gallatin.
"I’ve made the circle," Eileine said. "I’ve not roamed too far."
She was married at 24. Her husband Joel farms and works at Landmark. They have two children, Amanda, 31, and Breanna, 11.
Eileine studied at the Chillicothe Beauty Academy. She keeps up with the latest techniques and is not above experimenting on herself, including the time she turned her own hair pink. It was a testament to style and imagination that she decided to keep.
"I wore my hair pink to a hair show," she said. "I kept it pink until it faded out."
When it comes to doing hair, Eileine is a natural, except for, well, her hair. Her hair is red right now. But it may not stay that way for long.
"I had a customer call this morning and say she wanted her hair the same color as mine. I said, ‘You mean red.’ She said, ‘No, the other color.’ She hadn’t seen me in a month or so."
Her hair color may change, but her business generally doesn’t.
"It’s still the same now as when I started," she said. "Frosting is called highlighting now. The terminology has changed. It’s gone more scientific on us, is all."
The square has changed to be sure.
"People move out of town, but then they come back,"Eileine said. "The square has lost a lot of business. But it’s getting filled back up."
Her customer base changes very little, except they are getting on in years. But she has youthful clients, too, men and women.
Eileine has one customer that has been with her from the beginning.
"Lois Houghton is the last original one. I’ve had a lot of steady ones. Ruth Bailey for 29 years. A lot for 20 years."
No doubt the shop itself has kept up the same joking and easy banter through the years.
"We’re not just all gossip," Eileine said. "We’re sort of the ‘information central.’ People call for recipes and who to get to paint their house."
Every day she hears her customers talk and if they have secrets, well, Eileine keeps her lips sealed. Every day she hears a lot of stories, some funny, some sad. And about every week there’s the usual small crisis.
"When the ladies mix up their eyeglasses and head home with the wrong ones on their head," Eileine laughs. "How they can see is beyond me. One lady wore bifocals and picked up trifocals. We have to track them down to get their glasses back to them. They can run but they can’t hide and we always find them. Only in a small town can you do things like that."
Eileine is as loyal to her customers as they are devoted to her. Recently she hurt her leg and she worked limping around in boot cast.
"I stepped off the handicap curb," she said. The irony is not lost on her. "A handicap curb," she repeats. "That’s proof that I can’t walk and talk at the same time."
She broke a small bone in her foot and sprained the ankle. She did it on a Monday and was back to work on Tuesday.
"She never takes off," said Linda.
Asked if that were really true, Eileine thinks for a moment.
"Maybe one time for strep throat and that’s it," she said. "I’m grateful for all my clients and all my friends,"she adds. "It’s been an honor to do their hair for them."