A popular Tracy man who once boasted about polishing the bald head of the late Con Rettmer with Lemon Pledge died Oct. 14, leaving behind a small-town legacy.
Jack Miller, a barber for 50 years — about 47 of those in Tracy — was 90 years old.
“He was a good man, he was very generous,” said Wayne Anderson, a close friend and card-playing cohort of Miller for more than 40 years. “He’d go to somebody’s home and give them haircuts if they called, and the nursing home.”
In 2024, Miller was the guest of honor at Wheels Across the Prairie Heritage Center for the dedication of the museum’s barbershop exhibit. It featured a small building built in 1938 in Green Valley. Two years ago, the structure was moved to Tracy after it was purchased by the museum in 1996. Miller was on hand for the celebration and took selfies with well-wishers as he grinned from the seat of the very barber shop chair that so many hundreds of loyal Tracy customers from years past settled into to have their hair cut.
Miller — one of the remaining gentlemen who still willingly wore a suit to church (Anderson said in these days, his friend was the only one to do so) — will be remembered, not just as a barber, but a storyteller with a predisposition for pulling pranks.
“He had quite a life, but he was very respectful,” recalls Anderson. “And he loved to have fun.”
Miller also cherished his life on his small farm east of Tracy. A farmer at heart, he raised all sorts of animals on his property east of Tracy, and almost always had man’s best friend in his shadow.
“He loved animals,” said Anderson. “He always had sheep or cattle out there. He had a cow that had a calf, and he went out and bought three more calves, and told me the cow had four calves, and I believed it. He says, ‘Just ask Doc Brockway,’ and he was in on it, of course. He got me good on that one.”
But it was his kindness, sense of humor, broad grin and respect for others that perfectly complemented Miller’s longevity in the haircutting business that made him Tracy’s most popular coiffeur — one who got his feet wet in the trade during an era where barber shops were simpler, idyllic and of a more traditional, Rockwelian nature.
But Miller’s wasn’t your ordinary barbershop. Under current parlance, it could be referred to as a front for some pretty serious poker games.
“If there was four, five guys sitting around, well, there would be a game in the back,” said Anderson. “One of the guys, Vince Anderson, was getting his haircut and somebody came in and said, ‘Let’s play some cards.’ Vince was sitting in the chair getting a hair cut and says, ‘Well, did you leave a mark where you left off?’ He came back to play cards, and Jack finished his haircut after the game!”
Miller started his career at Cliff Strand’s shop on Front St., where he bought out Austin “Wazzie” Molitor’s business and equipment. He continued there for a decade before moving to a more permanent home on Morgan St., across from Tracy Lanes. Miller said in 2023 that he was one of the last barber students to be taught how to shave with a straight razor, and said hair cuts were 85¢ when he started in barber school.
“Four weeks after I started, it went to a dollar and a quarter — and I got blamed!” he joked back in 2024.
Miller’s old building was home to a number of different businesses after his retirement, but even though the red, white and blue barber pole is gone, for many in Tracy it will always be known as Jack’s Barber Shop.
Miller said at the museum in 2003 that although cutting hair and shaving beards was his vocation, he was blessed with having an occupation that allowed him to spend so many moments with friends, either cutting their hair, sharing stories or beating them at cards.
“Visiting was the best part,” he said. “Arne Zins was there every morning, Wayne Anderson … we had lots of good times. We played a lot of cards in the back. I’ve always tried to get along with people.”
Miller, who grew up in a family that didn’t have much, Anderson said, appreciated what he did have later in life and his space out in the country, where he dug up and replanted a tree he had in town at his farm site. And although he might not have looked the part, he was a tough man.
“Last winter, he fell and broke nine ribs, and I fell once and bruised one and he got over his fall quicker than I did!” said Anderson. “I said, ‘Jack, aren’t you in pain?’ He said, ‘No, I don’t have any pain. Tough old bird.”
Miller will be remembered by many old friends and his family, including his “special friend,” Wendy Sellman, who served as his close confidant for the last six years.
“They had a really good relationship,” Anderson said. “She was special to him. They were lucky to find each other.”
