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Drs. Laws & Young Blvd. (Dolls) Street Sign Unveiling
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John Neal, All-Black Towns, Black Towns, Oklahoma Black Towns, Historic Black Towns, Gary Lee, M. David Goodwin, James Goodwin, Ross Johnson, Sam Levrault, Kimberly Marsh, African American News, Black News, African American Newspaper, Black Owned Newspaper, The Oklahoma Eagle, The Eagle, Black Wall Street, Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Drs. Laws & Young Blvd. (Dolls) Street Sign Unveiling

By Margaret Hicks

Eagle Staff Writer

mhicks@theoklahomaegle.net

 

Drs. Alene Young and Lorean Laws (posthumously), will be honored on May 11, 2017 with the street renaming and sign unveiling at 2120 Martin King, Jr. Blvd. and Woodrow Place, Tulsa, Okla., at 4:00 p.m. A dinner and reception will follow at 5 p.m. at Vernon AME Fellowship Hall, 311 North Greenwood Avenue. Young and Laws were the prominent owners of Laws and Young Beauty Palace, which was located on North Cincinnati, now Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Young and Laws had an annual production each November called Dolls, Dolls, Dolls.  The theme was nationally trademarked. Young still owns the trademark. In relation to the naming of the street, the Mayor’s office is working out the details.

 

Laws and Young Beauty Palace

According to Young, no one had a shop like theirs in Tulsa north. Within its 2300 square feet, they had separate rooms for pedicures, manicures, facials, and the styling of wigs. This practice afforded their clientele confidentially and privacy, a lost social grace in today’s industry.

The facility also had a large reception area, an office, and a circular drying area. Young says theirs was the largest salon in Tulsa and was a very upscale, classy beauty salon.

Margaret Love was a patron of the salon. She said Laws was a “classy person and down to earth.” Love was a client for 47 years.

The structure, which had a Spanish look, had custom-made furniture and there was a rock garden and lemon trees on the property. The lemons were used in various beauty solutions in the salon. The structure also housed their store where clients could purchase beauty and other products. It was “well stocked and classy” according to Young.

 

Charm School

See Also

The sisters’ salon also housed a charm school, Laws and Young Charm School, which provided young women and men training in social graces. Among the things taught, young men learned the lost grace of how to open doors for young women, who learned how to walk through them and allowing the young man to place her order in a restaurant rather than just bellowing out “gimme a hamburger, coke, and some fries.” The school’s curriculum also included modeling.

About The Duo

Young and Laws (née McDaniels) are biological sisters. Laws passed in 2015 at the age of 84. Young is 90. These women were the first African American woman to receive doctorates in cosmetology in Oklahoma. Laws graduated from Booker T. Washington (BTW) in the class of 1947. She earned a BA, MA, and PhD from the National Beauty Cultures League Institute of Cosmetology in Washington, DC. She was also a graduate of Troupes Beauty College and was a teacher in her field.

Dr. Young, who lives a life setting goals and obtaining them, is also a highly-educated woman in her field. She said, “she has worn nine caps and gowns.” She graduated from BTW and Madame Mays Beauty College on the same day in 1945. Young also graduated from The Oklahoma School of Accounting, Draughon’s School of Business, Nancy Taylor School of Charm and National Beauty Culturist League’s Cosmetology Institute Division.

Dr. Young still has a salon which she runs from her home.

 

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