Friday's Internet Edition, July 25, 2008.
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| Local barber Steve Halliburton (left) receives his gift from Frank Holder (right). |
Folk artist R. Frank Holder of Lewisville last week gave one of his creations to barber Steve Hallyburton as thanks for helping him through a tough time.
During Holder’s hospital stay for heart surgery, Hallyburton took his scissors and clippers to the hospital and later to Holder’s home. He refused Holder’s attempts to pay.
So Holder found another way of returning the favor. Last week, he presented a framed set of barber tools he had created in his shop and delivered it to the Hallyburton-Sowers barber shop on Styers Ferry Road.
“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Holder said. “He’s a pretty good guy, and I wanted to do something for him.”
A welder, Holder’s iron sculptures are head-turners for motorists on U.S. 421 at Joe’s Landscaping and other places in the area. He has a whale at his home that spouts water from its blow hole.
Holder fashioned scissors, clippers, a comb, shaving brush and razor out of the scrap metal around the shop. The comb was made with welding rods. The shaving brush was made from welding wire. The scissors were made with lawn mower blades.
“I told him to hang it on the wall,” Holder said.
Since retiring from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Holder’s reputation as an artist has grown. He was featured once in Our State magazine.
He had his first show in 1992.
His motto is “Bent, Broken and Crooked,” and his creations are made that way.
He and wife Doris live on Lasley Road. They have been married 48 years.
“He’s a very smart and talented man,” Doris said. “I don’t mean to brag, but he is.”
Retirement didn’t slow him down. After a career as a welder, he turned his torch to artistic efforts.
“I started back in 1987,” he said. He has a Joe Camel and Wake Forest Deacon at his home that he hasn’t been able to part with.
He has also made a sunflower, a spider, dinosaur and other creations.