Rankin Family Home

Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2014 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

IN MEMORIAM
Roy Rankin

Local news used to travel by word of mouth and there was no better place to catch up on happenings in Franconia than Roy Rankin’s barber shop. It was first located on Franconia Road across from Ward’s Corner and then in the Rose Hill Shopping Center. Rankin’s Rose Hill Barber Shop was one of the original businesses in Rose Hill when the center opened in 1961. Previously, the Safeway store sat there by its lonesome for three years. Of the originals, only the barber shop, cleaners, beauty shop and pizza parlor remain in the same location.

Roy cut hair in Franconia from 1955 until May of this year when he passed away at age 84 from an aneurism while recovering from a broken hip. Although he had sold the shop about 20 years ago, he continued to operate the chair just inside the door every Saturday until a few weeks before he died. He knew most every male in Franconia and plenty of the parents-- both male and female -- who brought their sons to get their first haircut.

Although Roy is gone, the local history conversations continue at the Rose Hill Barber Shop. Donald (Scotty) Scott, one of Roy’s first barbers, continues to hold court and cut hair every day except Thursday. He began working at the Franconia Road shop in 1960 and moved to Rose Hill two year later.

Rankin and his wife Barbara Anne moved to Northern Virginia in the 1950s when she got a job at then Cameron Station and he began cutting hair in Shirley Duke (now Foxchase). He opened his own shop in Franconia and they moved to nearby Em Street and later to Greenleaf Street. They raised three children here, sons James and Terrance and daughter Tamara. James built the cabinets that line the walls in the Museum, including those behind glass to protect valuable artifacts.

Roy was active in community organizations and was the president of the Springfield-Franconia Lions Club. The Rankins belong to Franconia United Methodist Church.