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Angie Raybourne, the new owner of LMH Salon (formerly Jim's Barber Shop) seated next to her father, Mark Cuthrell. |
In the past few years if you had driven past 10 Renshaw Road in Highland Heights, it's likely you would have given the small, brick building no notice. But all buildings hold stories and this one holds one of the best: the story of James (Jim) T. Mountain.
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There, at 10 Renshaw, Mountain cut hair in his one-chair barber shop – and if you had any connection to high school football, it's likely he cut yours – or your father's – or your grandfather's. Mountain died on September 5, 2014, but with the recent reopening at 10 Renshaw, now
LMH Salon, Mountain's story lives on. LMH Salon, owned by Mountain's great-niece, Angie Raybourne, serves as a testament to the life Mountain lived – on the basketball court, on the football field, aboard the USS Leary, in his barber shop, at the horse tracks, and at home, caring for his wife.
Mountain was born June 12, 1921. He grew up at Second and McKinney in Dayton, Ky., where his mother owned a candy store (Mountain's father died when Mountain was 6). Mountain had one sister. One of Mountain's best childhood friends, Jim "Red Dog" Doughtery, lived at Third and McKinney (more on that later). Mountain's home flooded during the 1937 flood, and he and his family moved to Bellevue.
According to old news clippings and a family scrapbook, Mountain's childhood was spent playing basketball and baseball on the street, and fishing and swimming in the Ohio River. He and his friends would take canoes out on the Ohio River, and paddle in the waves of the Island Queen, a sidewheeler steamboat, while the boat's crew would try to shoo him and his friends away by throwing plates and shooting BB guns at them.
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Dayton High School's football team in 1938. |
Mountain attended Dayton High School where he played basketball (guard) under coach John Wooden (Wooden would go on to win 10 NCAA national championships in his 12 years as head coach at UCLA). Jim "The Man" Mountain (family says he was maybe 100 pounds, soaking wet) also played football for Dayton, losing to Highlands High School in 1938 but beating them 35-6 in 1939.
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Jim Mountain served in the Navy during WWII. |
Mountain served in the Navy for five years during WWII. He was a torpedoman. His ship, the USS Leary, sunk on Christmas Eve in 1943. Mountain was 22. He spent hours on a cork raft in the icy North Atlantic before being rescued. He was one of 60 survivors, and only one of two torpedomen (out of 11) who survived. According to family stories, one of the men on his raft asked to switch positions with him, believing he had a better chance of survival. Out of kindness, Mountain did. But the man was wrong – he died, and Mountain survived.
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Local newspapers around northern Kentucky interview Jim Mountain upon returning home as one of the few survivors from the USS Leary. |
From a newspaper clipping:
"Mountain arrived home early yesterday, surprising his mother, who had been frantic with worry since hearing the previous night that the Leary had been sunk. Mountain's shouts of 'Mom, Mom, Mom,' as he pounded on the door were music to her ears."
Mountain was discharged from the Navy in 1947.
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Jim and Louise Mountain. |
Mountain attended Xavier University to study physical education. He began coaching football at Dayton High School in 1947. In In 1949, the Green Devils won the Kentucky State Football Championship. After, Mountain stopped coaching. He married the love of his life, Louise, who worried there wasn't enough money in education. So Mountain attended school to become a barber, which they both thought would lead to steadier work.
Mountain opened Jim's Barber Shop at 10 Renshaw in 1953.
Fast forward to 1994. Remember Mountain's childhood friend, Jim "Red Dog" Doughtery? In 1994, Doughtery was the assistant football coach at Highlands. One day, at practice, Doughtery recognized a man sitting on a bench at the top of hill, watching the Highlands team play. That man was Mountain. Doughtery introduced Mountain to head coach Dale Mueller. They needed a punting coach, and Doughtery knew Mountain could do the job. Mueller hired him.
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Jim Mountain served as an assistant football coach at Highlands High School for many years. |
Mountain served as an assistant football coach through four Kentucky State Football Championships, including 1996, 1998, 1999 (50 years from his first state championship with Dayton) and then 2004, which marked his 55th year of coaching.