Like clockwork, Grady Brown Jr. comes to Roosters Men’s Grooming Center in Flower Mound nearly every Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
A driver brings him from his Highland Village residence so he can sit in Ab Chahmi’s chair for a haircut and facial. Chahmi said Brown has missed only a few appointments in the more than eight years they have known each other. One of those was Dec. 6.
“I try to stay on time and be there,” Brown said. “When I didn’t get up there, they thought, ‘Sure enough, he had dropped dead.’ I answered the phone when they called and said, ‘I’m alive and well. I was in the middle of something I just couldn’t pry loose.’”
True to form, Brown was right back on schedule the following week, when those at the shop shared a cake to celebrate his 100th birthday, which had been four days earlier. The milestone followed a private celebration on the actual day with his 91-year-old lady friend, Arlene Johnson, at an Italian restaurant in Addison.
After living in North Dallas for most of his life, Brown moved about 15 years ago to his current three-acre property on Lake Lewisville. He spent most of his working years in the nursery and landscape business, starting under his father before partnering with his adopted son, Jim, on a tree farm along Interstate 35 across from Vista Ridge Mall. The property was sold in recent years to the Huffines family of car dealers and other investors.
Unlike many people later in life, Brown never fully retired.
“I’ll retire when I drop dead,” he said. “When you have things that need attention or need to be sold, you still have a responsibility. These people who retire and say, ‘I’m going to sit on the front porch and rot’ — you can do that, I suppose, but I’d rather come up here and work this guy,” he said, gesturing toward Chahmi.
Chahmi, a barber for more than 25 years, said Brown is sharper than most men half his age. Their conversations usually revolve around the weather and Brown’s dogs.
“He likes rain,” Chahmi said. “He always knows how much rain Austin gets because that’s where his son lives.”
Brown graduated from Hillcrest High School in North Dallas, where one of his closest friends was legendary football player Doak Walker, who attended nearby Highland Park High School and Southern Methodist University before playing six seasons in the National Football League.
“His daddy was more of a daddy to me than my own,” Brown said. “We used to go skiing together. I skied for 50 years until I had to give it up because when you can’t see, that’s a good way to kill yourself.”
After earning a degree in landscape architecture from Texas A&M University, Brown went to work for his father at what he described as one of the largest retail landscape and garden centers on Preston Road in North Texas.
Today, Brown spends most of his time with Johnson and playing with his six dogs, along with her three.
Before Johnson, Brown was married twice for a total of about 15 years. Jim is his only child.
“I’m allergic to marriage,” he said.
He is not, however, allergic to life. Aside from macular degeneration and a few other ailments common at their age, Brown and Johnson remain fairly healthy. It shows in the way Brown easily walks from the barber chair to the parking lot to meet his driver.
“The secret to success is to keep moving,” Brown said. “Don’t sit on the porch. Get a good doctor, get a good lawyer and just go for it. And get a good barber. That’s real important. Of course, I don’t have a lot to work with.”
While many seniors sit around and enjoy doing nothing, Brown refuses to sit still.
“If you want to sit and rock to pass the time, you can,” he said. “But I don’t want to do that.”
