Young Chang
BALBOA PENINSULA -- Donald Wayne Moses had his wife post signs on the
door to their barbershop in recent weeks that read, "I'm coming back."
He was worried about customers he had served for 43 years, customers
who had relied on him to cut their hair and to be a friend as the tresses
were trimmed.
While at Hoag Hospital for pancreatic cancer treatment this month, he
asked wife Linda to find a new barber to take care of his "friends," just
in case.
Moses died on Wednesday. He was 68.
And though he never made it back to Mr. Balboa, his Balboa Peninsula
shop, his customers have been stopping by since his death with flowers,
hugs for Linda and to glimpse the photo of Moses wearing his usual Reyn
Spooner reversible Hawaiian-print shirt.
"You could not stop by his shop without him saying, 'Oh Gay, come here
a minute. Did you hear this?"' longtime friend Gay Wassall-Kelly said.
"His stories, they would just slay you. He knew something about
everybody. It was never gossipy, though. Always an accomplishment or
something."
Mike Payne, a 20-year customer of the late barber and a clerk at the
neighboring Balboa branch of the Newport Beach Public Library, said Moses
was the typical barber in that he was genuinely nice.
"You kind of have to be, to be a barber," said the clerk, who is now
searching for someone new to cut his hair. "Barbers are always famous for
talking and sharing the news."
But Moses rarely let on how sick he was. He never complained and never
sacrificed a smile, no matter how bad he felt, Linda Moses said.
The Los Angeles native moved to Newport Beach in 1959, first opening
the shop with his barber father. Moses became known for his smile and for
how he made even strangers smile. He would stay open past 5:30 p.m. if a
customer couldn't make it in from work on time. He would give of his
compassion just as readily.
"He was generous to a fault," close friend Ginny Fisher said. "He
loved everybody."
Moses had surgery in October and returned to work almost immediately.
For months he was fine, until about five weeks ago, when he became ill
again.
"But he and I used to talk about how you need to have goals and
objectives that get you up in the morning," said friend Lou von Dyl, a
pancreatic cancer survivor. "So many people accept what the doctor says,
but he and I, we didn't believe that. We believed we were going to make
it."
Von Dyl met Moses in 1974. The city newcomer needed a haircut and
walked into Mr. Balboa.
