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Bob Byrge of Hazard was the first person to correctly identify Mystery Person # 7 as Clymon Shelton. Roscoe and Carlene Shackelford also quickly identified him just two hours after Byrge signed in. That's two in a row for both Byrge and the Shackelfords. Jena Barker of Point Pleasant, WV., correctly identified the latest Mystery Person.
He next moved to Welch, West Virginia, where his brother was practicing dentistry. After about four months in Welch, he returned to Alabama and worked for about a year managing the Camp Barber Shop and also worked in the coal mines at Townley, Alabama. About a year later, he went to Louisville and worked in the barber shop at the Seelbach Hotel. Here he formed a lifelong friendship with another barber, P. B. Huff. Shelton stayed at the Seelbach until his brother bought a dentistry practice in Hazard. Both Clymon Shelton and P. B. Huff left Louisville within a week of each other and came to Hazard in 1921 to practice the "tonsorial art." Shelton's first job was in the Bodkin Building which later was home to the Hurst Snyder Hospital. The business was known as Carpenter's Barber Shop and was the first modern barber shop in Hazard. He then moved to Florida and operated a barber shop there and returned to Hazard in May 1927 to established the Shelton Barber Shop in the space later occupied by Hazard Lunch. He eventually moved downstairs in the Grand Hotel. Three of his original employees, Bill Cook, Johnny Melton and Phillip Wright, worked with him for decades. He also worked with Jim Baker, French Evans, R. L. Triplett and P. B. Huff. During World War II - Shelton and Huff, operated two barber shops at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Shelton then opened a business on East Main Street selling Evinrude outboard motors and was often seeing water skiing at Buckhorn Lake. He was a former Hazard City Commissioner and manager of the Hazard Golf Club. Clymon and his wife Jennie Mae Shelton lived at Woodland Park. He died in 1975 at age 74. Recent Mystery Men Joe Foley M. C. Napier Dudley Goodlette R. L. Collins John Gross Blondie Eblen Zeke Smith Fred Combs Lus Oxley William Stanfill S. B. Snyder Carl Seale Nell Harper |
Mystery
Person # 7 Clymon Shelton was
born in Reform, Alabama. He was educated in the County schools of
Pickens County, Alabama. One of his first jobs was at the local
sawmills where he worked for a couple of years. Upon the
insistence of his older brother, Frank, Clymon went to Detroit, Michigan
and took barber training. After he completed his training, his
brother persuaded him to take a job at one of the leading barber shops
in Detroit. Shelton was thoroughly convinced that he could not
perform this task; but his brother had the solution to the problem.
It seems that this was a rather large barber shop and had fourteen
chairs. Chairs two and fourteen were open for barbers.
Clymon's brother was well versed in barbering and was working his way
through dental school. Clymon got a job barbering in chair
fourteen, and Frank took chair number two, which was located next to the
proprietor in the shop. In those days Clymon and Frank could pass
for twins, and so, by a slight maneuvering, after having worked several
days, they changed clothes and Clymon took over the number two position
in the barber shop and Frank returned to Louisville to continue his
studies in dentistry. It appears that the manager of the barber
shop didn't know that a "green horn" was his number two barber
until he was told several months later. He took the joke well,
however, and Clymon remained with him for some time.