The man who battled racism to become Vancouver’s first licensed Black barber died this month and will be grieved today.
Walter “Buddy” Lee Smith Sr. died July 13 at age 84. He opened a shop in 1969 on Neals Lane off East Fourth Plain Boulevard.
Smith was born in Mexia, Texas. He married his wife, Doris Ann, in 1960 and they moved to Vancouver soon after. After he graduated from barber college in 1967, he applied to work at numerous barbershops in Vancouver but was rejected. Some said they didn’t think their customers would want a Black man to cut their hair, Smith told The Columbian in 1970.
Although the Veterans Administration employed him as a part-time janitor and barber, years later Smith found out his experience didn’t count toward becoming licensed because his supervisor wasn’t a licensed barber.
Instead, Vancouver’s Barber Union — made up of all white men — told Smith he had to go back to barber school because two years had elapsed since he passed the apprentice exam.
The Washington State Board Against Discrimination and the state Department of Licensing allowed Smith to take the barber’s test without returning to school — and Smith passed.
“(Ernest) Vanderhoef (the union’s secretary-treasurer) said this may well amount to discrimination in reverse because he doubts that a white person would be allowed to take the test without complying with the state regulation,” a July 1970 Columbian story stated.
A letter to the editor published in 1970, signed by Mrs. Walter L. Smith, addressed the discrimination Smith faced.
“He’s qualified to do the job as good or better than some barbers in Vancouver occupying a chair in the shops,” she wrote. “But if you’re Black, you’re marked by the white man.”
The barbershop
Despite the pushback Smith received, he opened his own barbershop with his brother Jack E. Smith. Walt and Jack’s Barbershop (now known as Walt and Jack’s Hair Affair) has been in business ever since.
“He was an entrepreneur. He was a hard worker,” said Kathy Parrish, the second-eldest of Smith’s four children. “He did not believe in anyone getting the best of him. He knew what he wanted in life, and he went after it.”
Smith rented a storefront at 3320 E. Fourth Plain Blvd. with only two or three barber chairs. He opened Beauty Boutique next door with tanning beds and other beauty services.
When the house across the way at 2309 Neals Lane went up for sale, Smith bought it. He transformed the house into a business and moved the barbershop into the larger space. The barbershop and Beauty Boutique were in business simultaneously from the mid-1980s to early 1990s, until the beauty shop closed. Walt and Jack’s Hair Affair remained open.
Family ties
All three of Smith’s daughters — Parrish, Debra Young and Taunya Poe — went to beauty school and worked at the shop at some time in their lives. Their mother was an old-school bookkeeper. Other family members and friends either worked at the reception desk, cut hair, washed towels or helped in other ways. (Smith’s son, Walter Lee Jr., “was not a hair person at all,” Parrish said.)
“You didn’t just get a haircut, but you also got wise words, good conversation, encouragement when you’re down, a helping hand when you needed it,” Poe said. “If you didn’t have money to pay for a haircut, he didn’t care.”
Parrish added, “He didn’t believe in turning anybody away, no matter what race, creed or color.”
Smith not only cut hair for a living but also worked a second job at night as a skycap (baggage carrier) for United Airlines at Portland International Airport. When he got home from his night job, his family would be waiting for him.
“He always made sure we had some kind of family time,” Parrish said.
The business remains in the family. Debra Young, Smith’s oldest child, works at the shop as an esthetician and cosmetologist. Poe’s 22-year-old daughter, Kariel Poe, also works there as an esthetician.
Smith was devoted to the shop, and his customers became family.
“He had a longtime customer that would continue to come and sit with him and be with him during these last few couple of months of life,” Parrish said. “He was right there by my dad’s side.”
His family said Smith’s memory will live on through his shop and devoted customers.
“He was very resilient,” said Tianté Parrish, Smith’s 33-year-old granddaughter. “To be able to move his family from Texas — especially during a time of unrest and uprising — it’s amazing that we’re still here and that this shop is still around for many more generations.”
Walter Lee Smith Sr.’s memorial service is at 1:30 p.m. today at Evergreen Memorial Gardens Cemetery, 1101 N.E. 112th Ave., in Vancouver and is open to the public.
