AMERICUS, Ga. — On any given day during much of James “Soapy” Herndon’s ongoing, 62-year run as a barber, passersby might have spotted his shop filled not with clients but with Secret Service agents.
For decades, after his time in the White House, Jimmy Carter was a regular customer, with just 10 miles separating the barbershop in downtown Americus and the Carter compound in Plains.
“The phone would ring and I would hear, ‘Soapy, President Carter needs a haircut.’ And I would say, ‘Well, send him on.’ And I would get nervous because, see, I didn’t want him to have to wait,” said Herndon, who goes by a high school nickname that he still “can’t figure out how I got.”
He says Carter was never fussy, always looking for the same sharp trim. And he was more than just a customer. He was also an old friend. The two men first met in the early 1960s, when Herndon, now 88, was new to the area, and Carter was still in the peanut business.
“We would go out on Friday night to eat supper and go dancing. We did that for a long time. Back then, we didn’t know he was going to be president.”
Carter’s rise to the governorship and the presidency momentarily removed him from Southwest Georgia, but Herndon never strayed. Soapy’s Barber Shop became an Americus fixture.
As Herndon delayed retirement time after time, he says he drew inspiration from the former president’s own productive longevity and busy schedule. Carter, now 98, remained active well into his 90s as a philanthropist and an advocate for human rights, democracy and public health.
“He’s a tough old bird. And I’m kind of like him … I’ll keep going as long as I can stand up (because) I love what I do,” said Herndon, who does concede that his pace at the barbershop has slowed with age.
“I can’t carry on like I used to. And he can’t either … You just can’t live forever.”
Carter hasn’t been to Soapy’s since 2015, when the former president’s health declined after a cancer diagnosis. Since then, he has been getting his haircuts at home.
“He told me, he says, ‘Soapy, I’m going to miss you. I’m going to start getting haircuts in Plains,” Herndon recalled.
With last month’s news that Carter has entered home hospice care came the recognition that Plains and Americus are soon going to be diminished, in a way.
“You know, we are going to lose something,” he said. “I hate to see him going.”
But that moment is still in the future.
Around 10 a.m. on Saturday, Michael Harper walked into the shop and took a seat on the barber chair, the same one Carter used.
“Old Jimmy is still hanging on, huh,” Herndon told him as he cut his hair.
“He’s pretty good folk,” Harper replied.
____
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Report for America are partnering to add more journalists to cover topics important to our community. Please help us fund this important work at ajc.com/give
