'You Gotta Move on Sometime, You Gotta Keep Going'

The smiles came easy but the words did not Thursday morning when Frank’s Men’s Hair Styling shop reopened five days after the untimely death of its owner.

A flurry of hair snipping, blow drying, combing and clipping was ongoing as well-wishers streamed in and out delivering coffee, pastries, sandwiches and cookies.

“Anybody hungry?” asked Joe Graziano to a crowd of about a half-dozen customers seated along a wall waiting to get a haircut shortly after 10 a.m. “All this food is gonna go bad if you don’t eat it.”

Graziano manned the last of a row of six barber’s chairs in the shop. He said the last few days have been hard but he and the three women and two men who work here relied on each other to get through.

“Frank was like a father to me,” Graziano said. “He was godfather to one of my five kids.”

Montemurro, 56, of Berlin Borough, had operated Frank’s for more than three decades. He died suddenly Saturday. 

“There were grown men crying in the street,” Graziano said. “Frank was like the Beatles of Haddonfield.”

Flowers, cards and candles had formed an impromptu memorial in front of the shop over the last several days. Some flower arrangements remained in the large, picture window of the storefront at 7 Kings Highway East on Thursday. 

The staff said returning customers had been respectful, giving them space while offering condolences.

“He was a good man,” said Allan Omenson, 72, a retired shop owner from Cherry Hill as he waited for a hair cut. “I never heard anyone say a bad word about him.”

“I don’t hear them talking about it over a whisper,” he said, nodding to the barbers.  “Sometimes it’s better to just listen.”

Allen Montemurro knows the code of a barber better than most. Frank was his brother. Barbers run in the family. Allen is a barber, his sister Angie Collins is the owner of Montemurro’s barbershop in the Williamstown section of Monroe; his sister Doreen Mancini teachers cosmetology. Allen is the owner of Ernie’s Barbershop in Berlin Borough, his father's original shop.

“We’re a whole family of barbers,” said Allen, 53. “Frank was a sweetheart. He had a kind smile and a warm heart. This barbershop will carry on. We will continue his legacy. He was a part of Haddonfield.

“The sheer love the Haddonfield community has given us has helped us get through a difficult time.” 

Frank always commanded the first chair in the shop, next to the large, picture window looking onto Kings Highway.

On Thursday, Kim Maggard was at the chair. She said she’ll be managing the shop now. She knows Frank’s chair is tough to fill and that she could never hope to do it alone.

“We’ve been together,” she said nodding to her fellow barbers. “We’ve all been together since this happened and that’s the way it’s going to stay. You gotta move on sometime, you gotta keep going. He would want that. He loved this place. We’re going to keep it going for him and the borough, as well.”

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