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  • Mark Beeman, a longtime Traverse City barber, would dye his hair green every March 17 for St. Patrick's Day, his birthday. Record-Eagle file photo

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July 16, 2010

Longtime TC barber Mark Beeman dies

BY LINDSAY VANHULLE lvanhulle@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Every March 17, Mark Beeman would go to work at a local barber shop and dye his hair green.

It became an annual event, not just for St. Patrick's Day, but also because it was Beeman's birthday.

His sense of humor was one of his defining traits, friends and family said, and it's one of the things they'll miss most about him.

Beeman, who cut hair in Traverse City for about 50 years, died Wednesday of congestive heart failure at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, said his wife, Joann Beeman.

He was 87.

"Everywhere we go, he's sort of a celebrity," Joann said. "Everybody in town knows him, wherever he goes."

Since at least 1988, Beeman had worked at Tonsorial Parlor barber shop in Meijer, where he was a manager. He was a barber at Robertson's Hair Center downtown prior to that.

Roger Argue, who owns both shops, said Beeman had his own business before joining Robertson's.

In all, Beeman cut hair for about 65 years. He worked until February when he became ill, Joann said, and a retirement party was held for him this spring.

"He never wanted to quit working. Just like Betty White, he said," Argue said in reference to the 88-year-old "The Golden Girls" actress.

"He had a great attitude."

Joann, who married Beeman 63 years ago in June, said he carried 12-hour days until he retired. He often was the first to arrive and the last to leave.

He started cutting his brother's hair at a young age, a skill that proved useful when he enlisted in the Army during World War II.

A Battle of the Bulge veteran, Beeman became, in essence, the military's barber.

"In his spare time, it was his job to keep all the soldiers' hair cut," Joann said.

He exuded charisma and was passionate about working with people, his wife said, and his colleagues said he had a penchant for practical jokes.

Once, Joe Schleicher, a barber at Robertson's, was washing his own hair in the sink while Beeman, unbeknownst to Schleicher, stood over him and poured more shampoo on his friend's head.

"That stuff really lathers well," Schleicher recalled thinking.

His coworkers paid Beeman back in May with a party in his honor. They brought Beeman his barber chair to sit in, "and he sat in that barber chair while they roasted and toasted him," Joann said.

When he wasn't working, Beeman loved golf and fishing. He was an avid cribbage player who made boards for each of his three children — son Jeffry Beeman, of Kalkaska; son Larry Beeman, of Charlotte, N.C., and daughter Markay Wait, also of Charlotte, N.C.

He had five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are pending with Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home.

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