Robert Charles “Charlie” Lowrance age: 93  b: 5/8/1903  d: 5/31/1996  Hendersonville, Henderson County, NC

Charlie Lowrance of Hendersonville, NC was the owner-operator of the barbershop on 346 7th Avenue East, Hendersonville.  He and Jim Pace opened the business in August 1922. They built a good customer base and a good group of patrons regularly played checker ever Thursday evening, often after closing hours until past mid-night on the weekends. Charlie played and won tournaments in Ohio, Florida and the Carolinas and considered one of the best in Hendersonville.  Jim died in 1955 and Charlie retired leaving Crystal Barber Shop to younger barbers.  Donald "Red" Price bought the building and the barber business from Charlie, which he is looking now to sell after cutting hair for 51 years. He is 72 years old and wants to retire and travel with his wife. He was helpful in giving me information about Charlie and a few checker stories that took place in Hendersonville. Charlie played many locals while barbering, they would move his checkers as he calling out the numbers where he wanted to move. Red told me he visited with Charlie and Emma as they aged and while over at their house in 1990 Charlie show him his checker library and told him I would love to gift this to some young person who was interested in checkers and wanted to study and be a champion. This was a closet with multiple shelves full of checker books. He said he didn't know what ever happen to those books since he was not a checker player and was not interested in studying checkers. Charlie was married many years to Emma Lou (Steep) Lowrance, they did not have any children, but were active in their church and community. Charlie & Emma were know and loved by everyone in Hendersonville and lived there most of their lives except a brief time in Wilmington while Charlie working at the shipyard during WWII.  Emma died three years after Charlie.  Both obituaries were published in the Hendersonville Times-News BlueRidgeNow.com   Emma Lou Steep Lowrance was born on October 1, 1905 and passed away on Saturday, October 30, 1999, both Charlie and Emma were residents of Hendersonville, North Carolina. You may contact Red Price at 828-693-3300 and view (map) location of Crystal Barber Shop and see this landmark, which still continues to keep two of the boards & checkers used by Charlie at the shop, but no one wants to play checkers.