Beauty Bower
Beauty Bower beautician's ca 1964
For more than forty years, the Beauty Bower welcomed generations of clients to its downtown Bellefontaine salon. Founded by the Cowan sisters and located at 124½ S. Main St., the salon occupied space above Powell Pharmacy and later, Insley’s Pharmacy and Family Pharmacy, becoming a familiar part of the community.
Helen Cowan Elliott’s career in the beauty profession began in 1938, when she commuted by train from West Mansfield to attend beauty school in Columbus. Her first job was at Camile’s Beauty Shop on N. Main St. in Bellefontaine. In 1942, after her husband, Jonathan, was deployed overseas with the U.S. Army during World War II, Helen moved to Cincinnati, where she lived with her sister Donnabelle and worked at the Frontier Beauty Salon. There, she had the memorable opportunity to style Doris Day’s hair when the singer came to Cincinnati to perform on WLW Radio. After the war, Helen and Jonathan returned to West Mansfield.
Donnabelle Cowan Jacobs career began as a cosmetician in Cincinnati and Springfield drugstores; she joined Insley’s Pharmacy in 1945 as a cosmetician. That same year, she and Helen opened the Beauty Bower salon. Helen later established a beauty shop in her home. Their sister Nellie Cowan Vernon, who trained at the Springfield Beauty Academy, also worked at the Beauty Bower for several years before her death in 1954.
About 1957, Pharmacist Merrill Insley, owner of Insley’s Pharmacy, became co-owner of the Beauty Bower with Donnabelle. His association with the pharmacy began in 1936, when he started his career at Powell Pharmacy. He purchased the pharmacy in the mid-1940s.
A 1958 advertisement offers a glimpse of the Beauty Bower at the height of its activity. The salon’s beauticians included Patricia Clay, Beverly King, Patricia Sebring, Eileen Titus, Corrine Pheneger, Shirley Miller, and Virginia Young. New to the staff was Miss Audrey Ellen Furman, a recent graduate of Warner’s Beauty College in Toledo. The advertisement highlighted her “training in advanced hair styling at Virginia Farrell School in Detroit, Michigan and Clairol hair coloring and bleaching in New York City.”
A Christmas 1966 advertisement invited customers to “Give her a ‘Gift of Glamour’ this Christmas, a stunning hairdo from The Beauty Bower. Gift certificates as an early gift before Christmas or after the holidays. Beautiful cold wave perms only $10.00, Shampoo $2.50, Haircuts, $2.00.”
The pharmacy changed hands in 1972, when Robert Stahler and Fred Burton purchased Insley’s Pharmacy from Merrill Insley and renamed it Family Pharmacy. Donnabelle retired in 1979 after 34½ years of service as a cosmetician with Insley’s and Family Pharmacy, but her connection to the Beauty Bower continued. Helen also remained devoted to her profession, operating her home beauty shop until she was eighty-nine. She even traveled to the homes of long-term clients who could no longer drive to her salon.
In 1985, Maggie Savage became owner and operator of the Beauty Bower, a position she held for about two years. The salon closed around 1987.
The Beauty Bower helped launch the careers of many beauticians and left clients and staff with warm memories of friendly conversations, favorite hairstyles, and lasting friendships.
We first published this article in 2022 and asked for your help identifying the women pictured. Thank you to everyone who responded. A few remain unidentified; if you recognize them, please let us know.
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