Top: Mechanicsburg High School yearbook. CCHS yearbook Collection;
Bottom: Stone’s Barber Shop, 7 Railroad Avenue (27-29-05).
Roy Harold Stone (22 June, 1914-18 November, 2007), universally known as Harold, often as Stoney, was a barber in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He worked as a barber from his days as an apprentice at age fourteen until his retirement at age ninety-two.1
Stone was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, and grew up in Mechanicsburg, where he attended school, graduating from Mechanicsburg High School in 1933. Stone was an active member of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church on East Main Street in Mechanicsburg.
From 1943 to 1945 Stone served in the United States Navy. He had been drafted and sent to the naval base in San Diego, California. There and later on board ship in the Pacific, he cut men’s hair. He was a charter member of the Mechanicsburg chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and he also belonged to the American Legion.
Stone belonged to Eureka Lodge 302, the Freemasons in Mechanicsburg. As a Mason, he was eligible for and long held membership in the Zembo Shrine in Harrisburg. He also belonged to the Cumberland County Shrine Club.
Stone’s barbershop occupied the ground floor of a white, three-story double house on Railroad Avenue. Stone married the former Jean Cranford (1915-2008) on June 8, 1935, and they remained together until his death. They had a daughter, Rickie Jean. Stone’s wife, one of the first women in Pennsylvania to receive a barber license, assisted him in the shop.
Stone and his wife traveled widely. They had a weekend getaway cabin in Perry County and also took vacations to various destinations around the world. A map of the world hung on the wall of the shop opposite the mirrors and near the cash register. Fifty push pins marked places visited by the Stones, from Bermuda to Australia, Russia to Egypt.
For generations he seemed to be a permanent institution in his home town, but at the end of December, 2006, Stone did the unthinkable and retired. Almost a year later, he died at home, and, as he had requested, there was a Masonic funeral at Myers Funeral Home in Mechanicsburg. After his wife died, his ashes and hers were scattered on the grounds of their cabin.
Whitfield Jenks Bell, Jr., (3 December, 1914-2 January, 2009) was born in Newburgh, New York, and grew up in suburban Philadelphia.1 After graduating from Lower Merion High School, he enrolled in Dickinson College, graduating in the class of 1935.
[1] In addition In addition to personal knowledge, the author has drawn upon the following: “Roy Harold Stone,” The Patriot-News (19 November, 2007), B-4; “Roy Harold Stone,” The Sentinel (19 November, 2007), B-2. Also, “Jean E. Stone,” The Patriot-News (1 June, 2008), B-10. Jean Elizabeth Stone,” The Sentinel (1 June, 2008), A-12. Gina Cappello, “Barber a Borough Institution for 70 Years,” The Sentinel (2 August, 1998), B-6. Ford Turner, “Celebrating 68 Years of Great Hair Days,” The Patriot-News (4 June, 1996), West, 1 and 7.