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LAPLACE — January is a milestone month for Luce Marks Jr., owner and sole employee of Marks Barber Shop in LaPlace.

Marks celebrated his 90^th birthday on Friday, Jan. 10. He’s the oldest working barber in the region and perhaps one of the oldest working barbers in the country. Marks was only a few days past his 21^st birthday when he opened Marks Barbershop on Main Street in LaPlace, where it remains open to customers five days a week.

That was 69 years ago. The year was 1951. JD Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” wasn’t yet published and the first episode of “I Love Lucy” wouldn’t air for another nine months. World War II had ended just over five years prior.

Marks didn’t plan on becoming a barber. After graduating from high school in the late 1940s, he began an unfulfilling career with Louisiana Dredging. A chance encounter with an old friend who was attending barber school sparked the inspiration for a career change that turned into a calling.

On Jan. 4, 1949, Marks started cutting hair at Happy Jack’s Barber Shop in Norco. LaPlace was quickly growing, and he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to start his own business in St. John the Baptist Parish. The building he moved into was originally a barroom, and customers would stop to get a haircut before heading next door to enjoy a cold beer.

Today, LaPlace Cleaners occupies the space that once belonged to the barroom.

Over the years, Marks has lost a good bit of his hearing. He’s lost his dear wife, whom he raised five children with. He’s (thankfully) lost a cancerous kidney that was detected after a fall in his garage sent him to the hospital with a broken rib. After enduring surgery to remove the kidney in July 2017, Marks was back at work within two weeks.

Despite the hardships, Marks has been blessed.

“I don’t feel bad, really,” Marks said. “It’s not anything like I felt when I was 30 or 40, but the Lord has been good to me. I’m still able to work. I do a little gardening and take care of a couple of rabbits. I keep moving.”

Moving is all Marks has ever known. Having grown up on a sweet potato farm, he was working from the time he was old enough to plant and harvest crops. That part of him has never changed, and he takes pride in maintaining a large garden today.

During the summer, he grows tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squash and cucumbers behind his house. Summer ends and fall arrives, and it’s time to plant garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and parsley.

“I’ve been active all my life,” Marks said. “As soon as I get home, if the weather’s right, I can work in my backyard. If the weather is bad and I have to sit inside, I wouldn’t like that very much. I would rather stay motivated.”

Marks is grateful for his career as a barber because it has allowed him to make a better living for his family than he would have as a full-time farmer. He has many loyal customers, including a few who have been around since Marks Barber Shop opened almost 70 years ago.

Longtime customer Jonny Kinney jokes that he’s been visiting Marks Barber Shop since there was color in his hair. He misses the days when he could go to the bar and grab a drink while he waited for his haircut.

“He’s been cutting my hair for 30-plus years,” Kinney said. “If he wasn’t good at it, he wouldn’t have been here since 1951.”

Marks said he is happy with the current state of his business.

“I’ve made a good living all my life,” Marks said. “I don’t have the work I used to have, but I don’t want the work I used to have. I’m satisfied the way it is.”