Rebecca Manley Hamilton has gotten what she wanted the past 25 years, i.e., a place and position in life to be a hairstylist.
Her business, Cutting Company, is 25 years old this month. Her 10 employees recently gave their leader an anniversary celebration.
Rebecca had been 13 when she decided hair styling would be her life's profession.
That's when she began cutting the family's hair. She saved her father Roger a bunch of barber dollars through the years. Even her brother Robert gave in and let his sister cut his hair.
"We gave it all back when we helped her build her Cutting Company building nine years ago," her mother Mary Manley said.
That building is the stylish structure that stands across from City Hall at 101 Allday St. in Atlanta and seems to be, as it is, a place of beauty.
Rebecca came within a whisker of being something else in life while still a student at Atlanta High School. Those were the years when she tried out for pageantry and came within one-half point of making the necessary score to be in the Miss Texas Pageant.
She didn't really mind not going, however, and her parents say they were relieved in a way, too.
"It would have taken a truck load of dresses and supplies to go that contest," Mother Mary said. "We would have had to sacrifice. That was serious stuff back then."
And so Rebecca pursued the dream she had ever since her parents gave her a Barbie doll that could have its hair done.
"That was the perfect gift, for that's all she would do. Style that doll's hair. I know I wasn't an example to her. Hair has always been the least of my worries," Mary said.
'Mother, you are a fine example," Mary said her daughter would say to her in jest.
"Well, I comb it," the mother said she would say back.
Rebecca went on to finish high school, take the hair-styling courses she needed, including those offered by Texarkana College, and then joined with Jana Eaves to learn the business.
During those years, she also learned a great deal from Angie Hill, and soon she was able to buy the Cutting Company business.
Since then, it was been a wide and easy road and yet a narrow and hard one, too.
"Hair styling takes a lot of time and attention," she said. "It's not easy because you have to treat all the customers as individuals. Satisfy each one, and that includes having employees who get along well, too.
"The one thing I don't want for sure is having a business which others think it is a place of gossip. We're more professional than that, and I think my strength is that I have the personality to keep that view ahead of us."
Her mother Mary said that in her opinion, "My daughter's personality is pretty on the outside and inside. She's willing to be involved with others and has served on civic committees."
Now in her 25th year, Rebecca said the toughest part has been taking care of the business and also the family of the seven children she and Sam Hamilton are rearing. Rebecca does the cooking and driving for the children, too.
Her other family -her employees- certainly appreciate their business parent They were the ones who came to Rebecca and said they wanted to give her a 25th anniversary party last week.
Those employees are Hollie Hogue Clarke, Angie Hill, Lauren Kilboy, Michaela Marmon, Emily McCoart, Rachel McCoart, Jennifer Plum, Alicia Rhyne, Julie Teague and Janice Thurman.
And so they did. For six hours that day, customers and friends came by to say they were glad a potential Miss Texas decided to stay in Atlanta rather than go to Austin. The state didn't need her as much as they did, they might have reasoned.