Mr. and Mrs. Grote’s: Traditional Barber and Beauty Salon - by Tom Connor
Actually, it didn’t start out like that. When Terry Grote first opened his barber shop it was a solo act. When his wife Jo Anne joined the team, barbers and beauticians could not work together in the same shop. So, she cut men’s hair.
But I get ahead of myself. After he graduated from Elder High School, Terry was thinking of going to business school. However, his older brother, Joe, got a better offer and pulled out of barber college, and he asked Terry if he wanted to take his place. Terry attended Moler Barber School on 5th Street in Downtown Cincinnati. After he graduated, he opened his barber shop at the corner of Sunset Avenue and W. 8th Street with his former partner, Carl Kelly. The shop opened on April I, 1972, April Fool’s Day, as Terry likes to mention. This year marks 50 years at the same location for the barber shop.
Jo Anne is a 1966 Seton grad and she and Terry met in the former pub next door, The Sunset Lounge. This year, they will also be celebrating 53 years of marriage. Jo Anne attended the Cincinnati School of Barbering and Hair Design in Colerain and got her barber’s license in 1983 at which time the shop was expanded from one room to two.
Terry and Jo Anne’s son Douglas shares the hair cutting duties with his father. Another son, Mike, lives in Chicago. Both are Elder grads. Their daughter, Jennifer, a Seton grad, lives in Price Hill.
In 1994, Terry was awarded the Elder High School’s highest honor, the Altiora Award, for his service to the community and the school. He has cut the hair of a number of well-known Cincinnatians, none more famous than our own Richard Jones. So, if Terry had not stopped in at the Sunset Lounge one evening, none of this would not have taken place. Strange how things work out in life.