Westwood barber dies

Larry Oakley, owner and operator of Oakley’s Barber Shop on Gayley Avenue, died of a staph infection June 25 after nine weeks in the intensive care unit at Friedman Hospital. He was just more than two months shy of his 80th birthday.

Oakley came from a long line of barbers and had been cutting hair at Oakley’s since he was discharged from the Navy in 1949.

Larry Oakley’s grandfather Esra Oakley owned and operated Oakley and Sons Barber Shop in Springville, Utah, before the shop was moved to California. Larry Oakley was the fourth in his family to own the shop.

An Angeleno through and through, Oakley was born Sept. 5, 1928, and lived most of his life within a mile of his childhood home in West Los Angeles.

After becoming an Eagle Scout, he joined the Merchant Marines just after his 17th birthday and attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy, though he eventually resigned his commission and enlisted in the Navy.

As a sailor, he served as an electrician’s mate aboard the USS Dixie and USS Newman K. Perry, destroyers in the U.S. fleet. He was present for one of the initial peacetime testings of American nuclear weaponry at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Following his release from the service, Oakley married Leona Jeannotte in 1949, and together they had three children: Janice, Dennis and Freddy.

Coworkers, employees, patrons, family and friends of Oakley remember his seemingly ceaseless optimism, always positive and pleasant despite his endurance of personal tragedy and observance of some of the darker memories of U.S. history.

Upon reaching Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after his tour in the Marshall Islands, Oakley was stricken by the sight of the ships and sailors who fell casualty during the attacks there several years earlier, a scene he would often describe for family and friends with much grief and anguish.

Along with having witnessed the spectacle of a nuclear detonation, Oakley was a barber in Westwood during the civil rights era when Oakley’s came under scrutiny for refusing to serve black customers, according to Daily Bruin archives. He later defended the shop in an interview with The Bruin, explaining that at the time the barbers at Oakley’s were inexperienced at cutting black students’ hair, but training and staff additions corrected the problem.

Oakley also suffered the tragedy of his 5-year-old son Freddy’s death, when he was killed by a car outside the family’s home in West Los Angeles.

“It was a very dramatic time. It nearly killed him,” said Fred Oakley, Larry Oakley’s brother.

But in spite of such traumatic events, Larry Oakley remained upbeat.

“He was the most optimistic person I’ve ever known,” Fred Oakley said. “Everything was bright and sunny with Larry. If he had a problem, you never knew it because everything was happy with him. He never got mad at anything.”

Larry Oakley’s life work was the source of some of his strongest and most memorable qualities, making him a favorite of Howard Hughes and other figures of L.A. fame. He included a sharp sense of humor and some advice among his tools as a barber.

“He loved people. Larry could go into a group of strangers and immediately know them and be telling them jokes,” Fred Oakley said. “He was a master at the skills of barbering and knowing people.”

Other barbers at Oakley’s remember the owner’s diplomatic and friendly nature.

“He was a great guy to work for,” said Albert Duran, a barber at Oakley’s for the past 30 years. “He never acted like a boss. He treated everyone as equals.”

Ownership of Oakley’s is still in transition, but the shop will eventually end up in the hands of Clinton Schudy, a member of the staff since 1994 and manager since 2000.

Larry Oakley is survived by his brother Fred, his daughter Janice and his son Dennis.

Oakley’s remains were cremated and his family will be holding a gravesite burial ceremony July 26 at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. A memorial ceremony will also be held at Oakley’s Barber Shop on the afternoon of July 27.