The Profile: Vernon Winfrey
Vernon Winfrey is a tall, handsome man. He is erect and proud. He has a face and voice that reminds me of his fellow Mississippian, Morgan Freeman. And he loves to tell stories. Winfrey is funny, serious when he has to be but always very nice.
"My daddy always said, ‘Don’t let anybody be nicer to you than you are to them, and most times you will not have any problems,’” he says. “Note,” he adds, “most times.” That’s the major life lesson he passed along to his daughter, Oprah.
When Winfrey first came to middle Tennessee from Mississippi, his first job was as a janitor at Vanderbilt.
“I was one of the best janitors they ever had at Vanderbilt,” he says. “I tell the young guys down at the shop, who I know are trying to mess with drugs and such, that when I came to Nashville I had a suitcase, the clothes on my back and $15. I tell them I could sling that mop until I made it smoke. I wanted to be one of the best janitors until I knew I could do better. Get a job. Do something constructive!” That’s Vernon Winfrey. To appreciate him now is to appreciate where he came from, especially as we celebrate Black History Month.
Civil Rights & Black History
Growing up in Mississippi, Winfrey experienced some of the most turbulent days in our nation’s history. He lived a journey from second-class citizen to first-class man, and,through it all, he never turned bitter. Winfrey recalls that the most hurtful thing that ever happened to him occurred when, as a little boy, he had to go to town for his daddy. His destination: the home of a white man.
“I got to the front door and knocked,” he says. “The lady of the house came into the hallway, looked, and disappeared. I knocked again. Three more times this happened, but she never came to the door. As I got on my little mule to leave, she came out the back door of the house and shouted to me, ‘Boy, what do you mean knocking on my front door? Don’t you ever knock on my front door again!’ I just replied, ‘Yes’um.’”
Winfrey went home and told his dad what happened. His dad told him he would never send him to that house again.
“I am so grateful that my daddy didn’t teach us that we were second-class citizens,” he says.
As a teen, Winfrey recalls walking downtown where his daddy would always tip his hat at the white people he would meet on the sidewalk. Sometimes, the reply was not very nice. He questioned his dad about the practice, especially when people used derogatory language toward him. It wasn’t until years later that he got his answer.
“Daddy said he was tipping his hat for his four boys," says Winfrey. “He said, ‘As you boys grew up, I didn’t know what kind of trouble you might get into. And in that day, if someone spoke up and said your daddy was a fine fellow, they would let you boys go.’ That was the end of it. He was tipping his hat for us.”
In the mid-1950s, Mississippi was a hotbed of the civil rights movement, and Winfrey’s family did not back away. He came home one evening, and his mother told him not to sleep in the back bedroom of the house. She had two civil rights workers there.
“I said, ‘Daddy, aren’t you afraid to have them living here?’ My daddy said, ‘I have stayed in my place long enough. It’s time for a change. And, I want to be a part of that change. If anyone comes here messing with me, I’ve practically lived the three score and 10 the LORD has promised. If you come here, messing with me, you might get me, but I’m carrying somebody with me,’" Winfrey recalls.
Winfrey has been asked many times to tell his story and, while he does, he also recommends the book Up From Slavery, about Booker T. Washington and his struggles to get an education as a black man.
The Barbershop & Work
Winfrey’s wife Barbara says the barber shop that he has owned for years is the “other woman” in his life. Not only is it a place of business, it’s a gathering spot for men in the community and, because of Oprah, a big tourist destination. But Vernon Winfrey takes it all in stride. He delights in the tourists, dispenses advice to the young men and women who drop by and jokes around with his pals.
“We have a lot of fun around there,” he says. “But there is a time for everything. When certain young men come around, I try to say the words that are needed to help them in life." Many of those young men have come back, and that makes him feel good.
“One young man used to come in, and another barber in the shop cut his hair," Winfrey says. "Several years later, the young man came back, and I told him that his barber had his own shop down the street now. He said, ‘Mr. Winfrey, I know. But if I go to his shop, I can only get a haircut. But from you I can get a haircut and some good advice.’"
Sometimes, groups traveling through the area looking at various colleges are known to stop by.
“As they get off the bus, I tell some of them I know they are from ‘the hood.’ But, you can do good in the hood. I point out there is a store down the street where Oprah used to work. She was raised up in the hood. But she left the hood and now she’s doing pretty good! I encourage them that they can do equally as well," he says.
Tourists are a lot of fun for Winfrey. They come from all over the world to see the shop that helped pay for Oprah’s upbringing and education. A bus driver will regularly poke his head into the shop and ask Vernon to come out and say a few words to a bus of tourists. Winfrey will go outside with a microphone and welcome them to Nashville. He has put his autograph on just about everything from a notepad to a t-shirt, has a guest book for people to sign and has had his picture taken more times than he could ever remember.
Tourists are often surprised when they first encounter Winfrey’s shop, a place he says Oprah refers to as, "the cruddy barbershop."
“One day a postman came in and asked if this was Mr. Winfrey’s barbershop," Winfrey recalls. "I told him it was, and he said, ‘I thought I was coming to Oprah Winfrey’s daddy’s shop. I was looking for a castle.’ I said, Well, this is the castle. If I stay here all the time, you can stay here for a little while.”
Winfrey recalls another, similar incident. "A little boy was in the shop one time and asked me if I was really Oprah’s daddy. I said yes. He said, ‘Well, looks like you would have a different barbershop.’ Expectations!”
Winfrey’s wife thinks he needs a nicer shop, and he would like to have a nicer place for when tourists drop by. So, Winfrey and his wife are currently planning for a new barbershop as part of a redevelopment project they are working on in the Cleveland Park area of Nashville. The project is called Winberry Place, with "Win" for Winfrey, "B" for Barbara and "berry" for his longtime checker-playing buddy.
Time Off & Checkers
Checkers is one of Winfrey’s passions. There are no interruptions on checker nights, usually Mondays and Tuesdays.
“My friend Woodberry lives out toward Ashland City. We’ll play there one night, and, the next night, he’ll drive to my place, and we’ll play from about 7 to 11," he says. “We have been known to go to two or three in the morning. But that’s too long to be away from Barbara. Not going to do that anymore.”
Besides checkers with Woodberry, Winfrey spends his time off working his garden and visiting the sick. He carries a bag with him with his barber tools, and he will cut the hair of a friend in the hospital or nursing home. If others need a trim, he will take care of them as well. Not for money, just helping out. Vernon Winfrey loves helping people.
Future
Winfrey has a lot of things he still wants to do. He enjoys speaking when asked, just recently speaking to some of the troops at Fort Campbell. Wherever his speaking engagements may take him, you’ll still be able to find Winfrey at the barbershop.
“You know, you can get a pretty good education at the barber shop,” he says. “Fellow comes in talking a lot, and I just point to the sign we have that says, ‘DEAR LORD IN HEAVEN WHY ARE YOU TALKING?’ You need to listen more and talk less."
Winfrey tells the story of a man in the old days coming to town to do business: “He didn’t have a watch, but he knew what time he arrived in town by the clock on top of the courthouse," he says. “As the man arrived, he looked up and saw a sign that said, ‘CLOCK NOT WORKING.’”
He closes with a smile. “I don’t want to ever be found not working and disappoint somebody.”
Read more articles like this at www.southernexposuremagazine.com.
