Salem’s only dry cleaner, Personal Touch, on the corner of Iron St. and Center St., is set to close April 28 following the death of owner and operator Gary Chilton. He ran the business for nearly 28 years.
Chilton’s wife Beulah said she and Gary bought the business in 1995.
“(Gary) worked at Floyd Charcoal,” she said. “We saw it as a chance to get him out of the charcoal plant and have a business of our own to run. That was the main reason. It was for sale, and we just decided that he wanted to learn. He was good at it. He did it for 28 years, until he passed away in February.”
Beulah shared a photograph of her and her husband on the day they opened that was featured in The Salem News at the time.
“That’s what we looked like then, that’s when we opened it. Actually, we opened it May 6, but we got the keys on May 5,” said Beulah. “We look a little different now than we did. We’ve held the corner down for 28 years.”
During those 28 years, Personal Touch has served the community’s laundry needs for individuals and businesses.
“We did the long-term care (for Salem Memorial Hospital). We did laundry for the school, mop heads and stuff like that. Then we just serviced the community. We have a lot of weekly customers that come in and get shirts pressed every week,” said Beulah. “We did a lot of dry cleaning, we did a lot of shirt laundry. . . gentlemen would bring their shirts in. Farmers – cowboys like those stiff jeans and those stiff shirts. We just have normal people, a lot of guys that work at the bank bring their stuff in and have it done.”
Beulah said she is unable to keep the business running by herself following the passing of her husband.
“I hate it, but I couldn’t do it by myself,” she said. “Dry cleaning is a hard business. It’s hot, and it’s work. People just don’t realize; Lifting all those clothes, and moving it around, it’s work.”
According to Beulah, Gary had a knack for keeping the old machinery in the business running well. She said anyone trying to keep the business going would need a new boiler, at least.
“Our equipment was old, but my husband knew how to work on it and keep it going. To get service for equipment, you have to get it from the city and it’s expensive,” said Beulah. “We have steam boards, and we have a boiler in the basement. Our boiler is old, and we tried during the pandemic for two years to get a boiler, and you know during the pandemic everything was crazy.”
“If somebody who was mechanically inclined had bought it, they could have probably run it,” she added.
Beulah sold the building, but she says the new owner has no intention of continuing to operate the business as a dry cleaner.
“We had been trying to sell the business for a couple of years. We didn’t go through real estate or anything, just by word of mouth we’ve been trying to sell it. No bites, but you know everything was so messed up when COVID hit. The world was crazy; it still is,” she said. “I couldn’t afford to just close the doors and let it sit here until somebody (who wanted to continue dry cleaning) decided to buy it, so when I got an offer that was acceptable, I took it.
“There’s potential here, if a young person would have come in and would have improved it, I think it could have been a viable business.”
According to Beulah, it would be a difficult undertaking for another cleaner to start from scratch in Salem.
“It would be expensive to get into it. My husband and I had thought you would need to do it in conjunction with a laundromat, something that would bring extra income into the business. The business has done fairly well the last three years probably, but we got the hospital bid, and that helped us. That was one of our bigger customers. It just helped us to pay the bills,” she said. “There are different types of machines that you can buy now. We have a really old one, and we didn’t use hazardous (cleaners). We used solvent. We had to get a different machine because we didn’t want to use the toxic (chemicals).”
Personal Touch is the only dry cleaner in Dent County. Once Personal Touch closes, the closest option for dry cleaning will be Forum Cleaners in Rolla. The next closest dry cleaner to Salem will be Woodman’s Spur Cleaners, over a 50-mile drive from Salem, near Fort Leonard Wood. Beulah says her customers are sad to see the business go. Licking has no dry cleaner according to Google Maps listings, nor does Houston, Cabool or Bunker.
“(The customers) are sad, they’re like ‘what are we going to do?’ and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know.’
“They don’t like it too well, but I don’t know what to do about it. I can’t run it without my husband,” she said. “They can go to Rolla, there’s a place in Rolla that does dry cleaning.”
Beulah currently employs three workers, two part time and one “a little more” than part time. She says they have been working on lining up new jobs.
“One of them has already got another job, and another one’s got one lined out. Linda, she’s our main employee, she doesn’t know quite what she is going to do for sure yet. She’s got some options open.”
Beulah said she has enjoyed owning the business over the years but is ultimately ready to close.
“I’m ready to get out of it now because of this situation, you know. But I did all the paperwork for the taxes, and the payroll reports, and stuff like that. I took care of paying all the bills, and all the computer work; that was my part of it, and then I worked part-time for Dr. McCoy.”
Beulah, along with her duties at Personal Touch, is employed by Dr. Bill McCoy of the McCoy Vision Clinic.
“I had worked full time, and the last few years I went down to part time,” she said. “I’ll be 70 in January. I plan to keep working. As long as he’s there, I’ll be there.”
As the business prepares to close, Beulah has been going through the items remaining in the building. Many of the items will be donated, she said.
The business plans to close its doors for the final time April 28, sending customers who don’t want to iron their pants and starch their shirts in search of a dry cleaner.
