Five Corners Barber Shop closing after more than 40 years

GLEN ELLYN – Five Corners Barber Shop, which has been owned by the same family for the past 40 years, is closing at the end of the month.

Sue Cory, a third-generation barber and the owner of the shop, doesn’t know what she’ll do with her free time, but she’ll find something.

Cory said she’s not quite sure how she feels knowing the shop is closing. She described herself as unsentimental, so she probably won’t cry when she closes down for good.

“It’s weird. It’s very odd,” she said.

Cory is technically the owner of the shop, but she doesn’t view it that way. Her father, Tom Falzone, spent his entire life as a barber and a majority of his career was at the same location. Since his death, Cory said she’s just been continuing her father’s legacy.

Cory said she got an ultimatum earlier this year: Pay higher rent on her location at 805 N. Main St. or leave. So she decided to leave. Her last day will be Oct. 25.

Cory began cutting hair on a part-time basis when her kids were younger. Eventually, it grew into a career.

“I’ve been cutting hair for 25 years,” she said.

Cory grew up just down the road from the barbershop. She went to school in Glen Ellyn and has spent a majority of her life in the village. She no longer lives in town and said it will be different not to come to Glen Ellyn anymore.

“I grew up here, so it’s just a funny feeling that I won’t be around,” she said.

The shop was originally located at 820 N. Main St., near the intersection of St. Charles and Geneva roads. Cory’s father bought the building about 45 years ago and operated his barbershop out of its back portion.

Falzone moved his business across the street and his old building was torn down. The barbershop has changed its actual storefront location in the building at least once, Cory said.

Cory and her dad cut hair together side by side. She said her dad always used the chair on the right-hand side, so she used the chair on the left. In fact, the right-hand side chair has gone unused since her father died.

In addition to working together, the pair ate lunch and played games together.

“He tried to teach me cards, never quite got it. He tried to teach me golf, never quite got it,” Cory said.

Her dad loved to golf. One day, during down time, he decided to make a display board of all the golf balls he’d collected over the years, using golf tees to hold up the balls on the display. The collection continued to grow and is still in the shop.

Falzone died 17 years ago. For a year after that, Cory began to hate the barbershop. It was around that time she started telling herself she was going to sell the building.

“The biggest, funnest part was working with my dad,” she said.

But she stuck it out. And she’s glad she did.

“I got to meet a lot of wonderful people,” she said.

Cory said the people are the thing she will miss most and said her customers are the “sweetest people I probably ever will know.”