Liola's Beauty Salon

Green Book Entry/Entries
Liola’s Beauty Salon
Green Book Category
Beauty Parlors
Years Listed
1947-1955
Region
Coastal Plain
County
Bladen

Liola’s Beauty Salon was listed in the Green Book from 1947-1955. No address was given for the business.1

Liola’s Beauty Salon was not listed with an address in the Green Book but was located in Elizabethtown. The business has not been located in newspapers or other historical records.2

The likeliest owner of Liola’s Beauty Salon was Leola Dunham Turner, the only African American woman in Elizabethtown named Leola or Liola who was enumerated as owning a beauty salon in the 1950 United States Federal Census for Elizabethtown. Turner grew up in Elizabethtown and worked as a school teacher in her hometown as a young woman. She owned a beauty shop in Elizabethtown by 1950; her daughter, Gretchen G. Gillespie, worked at the salon but did not earn a wage.3

Leola Dunham Turner later moved to Ohio. She died in Warren Heights, Ohio, in 1997, at the age of 100. Her occupation was listed as “hairdresser” in her death record.4

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022

Notes

  1. Victor Green, 1947 Green Book, 64; Green, 1948 Green Book, 62; Green, 1949 Green Book, 56; Green, 1950 Green Book, 62; Green, 1951 Green Book, 53; Green, 1952 Green Book, 53; Green, 1953 Green Book, 53; Green, 1954 Green Book, 52; Green, 1955 Green Book, 53. 
  2. 1900 United States Federal Census, Elizabethtown, Bladen County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Leola Dunham,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1910 United States Federal Census, Elizabethtown, Bladen County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Leola Dunham,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1920 United States Federal Census, Elizabethtown, Bladen County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Lecoles Dunham,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1940 United States Federal Census, Elizabethtown, Bladen County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Leola Turner,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1950 United States Federal Census, Elizabethtown, Bladen County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Leola Turner,” accessed from www.ancestry.com. Note: other African American beauticians enumerated in the 1950 federal census for Elizabethtown were Mary M. Handon, Carrie McDowell, Leh Beauty, and Virginia McDuffie.
  3.  Leola Dunham Turner, October 23, 1997, Warrensville Heights, Cuyahoga, Ohio, U.S., Death Records, 1908-1932, 1938-2018, accessed from www.ancestry.com.