A Life Remembered: Barber remembered for humor, giving
Aug. 22—"I, Bernie Koenigs, am a common man who has had uncommon aspirations all my life."
Thus began a five-page document penned by Koenigs in advance of a Mankato Toastmasters event in about 1977. The former Eagle Lake city clerk and inspector, barber and humanitarian died Aug. 12 at age 85.
He left behind a legacy of family, fun and music.
In talking about his father from his home in San Diego, oldest son, Michael, spoke a few times about what he didn't fully appreciate about his father until he was gone.
That included unwavering personal discipline, his ability to fix almost anything, a seemingly endless supply of jokes (some inappropriate for certain audiences, but told anyway), and "two hollow legs" that allowed him to finish off 18 pancakes fried in Crisco oil on Friday Pancake Night.
"He had one meal a day and that was supper," Michael said. "So he expected the whole family to be sitting down, and the rule was we'd open with a prayer, eat supper, which lasted an hour, and then we'd end with a prayer.
"You didn't get up and there's no phone. That was the sacred time, and that was the rule."
The obituary crafted by son Joel speaks of him this way: "Growing up on the small family farm in Meyer, Iowa, Bernie developed the obedience, unwavering faith, strong work ethic and self-discipline that served him well throughout life."
He happened into barbering while serving in the U.S. Army, based in Ankara, Turkey, in 1958. His first assignment was capturing enemy code, then he moved into a supply clerk job, he told Connect Business Magazine in 2001. Untrained in barbering, he used his farm upbringing to learn a trade that earned him a few extra bucks.
After his time in the service, a promised carpentry job in Austin fell through, so he offered St. Paul Barber College some free work and got proper barber training. In 1962, he set up 14 job interviews, with No. 11 being at Y Barbers in Mankato.
"He came into town in the fall and saw the colorful leaves and fell in love with the town instantly," said his daughter, Ellen. Koenigs took the job at Y Barbers, ended up buying it in 1972 and sold it to Ellen in 2014. He continued to work there part time.
Bernie was known for giving his time, skills and talent without reservation, his family said. One of the many ways he gave was through his music.
For nearly 20 years, Koenigs' partner in visits to nursing homes and assisted living centers was local musician and insurance man Duane Mock. They met when Mock was performing and saw someone he didn't recognize enter, stand and watch him.
When Mock asked if anyone had requests, Koenigs raised his hand and asked if he could play along. Seems he had been booked to perform another day and had shown up that day by mistake.
"Man, we just fit like a glove," Mock said of that first performance. Seems Koenigs knew much of the same music Mock had played with his previous groups, such as Sandra Lee and the Velvets, including Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash.
"So then we started booking all of the nursing homes, adult day care centers and churches all around the Mankato area," Mock said. He played lead guitar, accordion and specialty sounds, such as slide guitar; Koenigs sang and accompanied himself on guitar.
"And when we got done, he would go around and visit with almost every person there," Mock added.
Mankatoan Rick Pepper has been a friend of son Michael and unofficial family member since about age 6. As such, he was asked to help with a gift from Michael.
"Mike paid me to come on a family trip to 'Famous' Dave Anderson's place on Round Lake in Hayward, Wisconsin, over the Fourth of July 2011 and photograph the trip," he said. "The purpose was to use those photos to create a printed photobook that he gave as gifts to his siblings and parents that Christmas."
Although Koenigs was comfortable in front of a microphone, the same couldn't be said for the camera, Pepper said.
And it seems you develop the gift of gab as a barber. That combined with Koenigs' natural interest in people and what they were doing worked perfectly to set up his joke-telling. Sometimes it was to the consternation of wife Judy, whom he had met at a church picnic in 1964 and married in 1965.
"He had his repertoire of jokes," Michael said. "I am not kidding, I swear to God, I'm not exaggerating. He could easily go a month straight, eight hours a day, and never repeat himself. He had the unbelievable memory for music and songs."
Fishing was another family activity, Michael said, with a couple of nights a week often spent on the lake. The rule was that everyone helped clean the fish, and nobody left until they were all filleted. He loved gardening, woodworking and wine-making, "sharing the spoils at every opportunity," according to his obituary.
When not doing these activities, Koenigs helped those in need, putting the skills in mechanical, plumbing, electrical and carpentry learned on the farm to good use. This extended to his work life, where he opened BK Studio to help women and men dealing with hair loss through heredity or disease.
"I remember him working with a lot of women who'd show up in scarves," Michael said. "And he (would say) the downstairs is off-limits while he's meeting with his clients."
Both the act of providing a hairpiece and how he did it gave people their dignity, he said.
