Frank Limentato, who snipped hair for decades at his Avenue Barbershop, 125 S. Oak Park Ave., retired last Saturday at the age of 77. Frank left Oak Park in 2009 and joined a couple of other barbers in Elmwood Park at a shop named, appropriately enough, Frank’s. Limentato grew up in Sicily during World War II and came to this country in 1968.
Meanwhile, a few blocks down the street at his shop in the Oak Park Arms, Emil Messina, Frank’s fellow Sicilian, who, at the age of 13 started cutting the hair of G.I.s as they passed through on their way to German during World War II, marked an even more remarkable milestone. He’s still cutting hair at the age of 88. In fact, he was cutting hair on his 88th birthday, which also happened to be last Saturday. And he’s just as affable as ever.
Congrats to both, and thanks for all those haircuts.
Ken Trainor