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 In May of 1950, Mrs. Young took over as Owner
and President of E.F. Young, Jr. Mfg. Co. As the company's successor, after her husband's passing, Mrs. Velma Beal Young was the epitome of effeminate strength and fortitude in the 1950's and 1960's. She
received her secondary education from Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee and she also received cosmetology training and her instructors certificate from Burkette's Beauty School in Memphis.
Mrs. Young was a full time mother of three; Loyce, Charles and Eugene III. Loyce, her daughter and Charles, her eldest son were away at college, and her
youngest son, Eugene III, was only 10 years old at the time of their fathers death. All of the Young children worked in the family business while growing up.
Mrs. Young also took notice of neighborhood children in need, making sure that the hungry were fed, the dirty were clean, and the
need for adequate clothing met for the children with less blessings than her own. She founded and operated Meridian's first ethnic beauty salon, Young's Beauty Salon in
1930. In 1944 she and her husband started Meridian's first ethnic barber and beauty schools, Young's Barber College and Young's Beauty School.
In the interim, Mrs. Young assured that her late husband's dream, E.F. Young, Jr. Mfg. Co., also thrived and prospered under her management. Mrs. Velma Young was the
chief administrator of E.F. Young, Jr. Mfg. Company's Chicago, IL and Meridian, MS plant locations for nineteen years. After which her son Charles, fresh from the military
and civil rights activists movement, came to the head of the company.
Mrs. Young was an active participant in many civic and social organizations. She was
the loving mother of three children and the grandmother of ten. All of whom she provided lunch for at the family house at 12:00 noon each business day. Velma Beal
Young departed this earth in February of 1987 and is honored with a neighborhood park bearing her name.
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