State-Journal.com - Frankfort Faces: Son picks up mother's love for sewing

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Photo By State Journal/Kelly MackeyDanny Monroe

Photo By State Journal/Kelly MackeyDanny Monroe hems a pair of jeans on a vintage sewing machine. Danny said he has tried to use newer machines, but they break too often because they are plastic.

Photo By State Journal/Kelly MackeyDanny Monroe looks out the window of Monroe’s Tailor Shop on St. Clair Street. Danny’s mother started the business in 1972. Many of the spools of thread and even the sewing machines date back to when Danny’s mother ran the business.

Danny Monroe talks proudly about his late mother, Izetta Monroe, who began a family sewing tradition in 1925 that is still going on today.

“Mother started sewing when she was just a girl. In 1925, when she was 9-years-old, she made her first dress without a pattern,” he said.

Danny says growing up, he doesn’t remember when his mother wasn’t sewing.

And, as a child, he had a lot of time to observe and learn. He came down with a disease rarely thought of today.

“They didn’t have the shots when I was 2, and I got polio.”

It destroyed the muscles in his left shoulder. The limited movement in his left arm is controlled by muscles in his chest and back.

He doesn’t remember much about the polio except that he was weak and couldn’t do sports.

“I mostly spent my time wading up and down Elkhorn Creek barefooted.”

And watching his mom.

Danny started crocheting and dabbling in sewing as a boy, but he never considered sewing professionally until he was in his 30s. He worked for a while at Union Underwear, and then joined his mom in her tailor shop, which she opened in 1972.

Today, Monroe’s Tailor Shop reflects the heritage left by his mother, who died in 2002 just before her 86th birthday.

Working from a two-room shop on the second floor of the Sower Building on St. Clair Street, Danny, 58, threads the needle on the same vintage Singer sewing machine his mother used throughout her career.

“The new machines have plastic parts and break more often. I won’t use them.”

His plants thrive in the lighting from the large unadorned windows overlooking the courthouse. There are scraps of cloth piled on old desks, next to boxes of colored thread, some still wound on wooden spools. An old ironing board looks like it has been pressed for service for decades, and tucked away in a corner are stacks of clothing patterns that date as far back as the 1950s.

An old, cable-less RCA television, with a built-in radio, keeps Danny company during the day.

“Someone gave me this a long time ago. I used to listen to the local radio station, but my favorite DJ, Russ Hatter, left. Now I just listen to whatever I can get on the TV.”

Danny says he “gets in a zone” when he sews and likes to finish whatever he’s working on before he heads home to Tricia, his wife of 30 years.

“I don’t stop until I’m done. I’ve been late for dinner a time or two.”

Danny buys his supplies locally, and all of his business is through word of mouth and the Yellow Pages. He does alterations and repair, mostly hems, waists and coat sleeves.

He still misses his mom (“especially when I come across something I don’t know how to do”) and keeps a small picture of her on a shelf.

She seems to be watching over his careful stitching, and encouraging him to continue the family business.

Danny has gotten used to working with what he calls a “semi-handicap” and has no plans to stop.

“I’ll probably sew for the rest of my life or until I’m unable to climb the steps to work.”

“Frankfort Faces” is a series that highlights people from within the Frankfort and Franklin County community. Each feature follows one of the city’s most unique personalities and includes a story, photos and video, which can be found by clicking the TV icon attached to the story online at state-journal.com.