Obituary
In the care of Solemn OaksCurtis Ballew, 70, of Fremont, died Friday, September 18, 2026, at home with his family around him, after a long illness he worked straight through until the last eight weeks.
Curtis was born February 26, 1956, in Muskegon, to Otis and Verna Ballew, and came to Fremont in 1979 with a license, a set of clippers, and eleven hundred dollars. He opened Ballew's on Main the following spring and cut hair there for forty-five years.
The shop was the shop, but it was also the room. Men came in for a fade and stayed two hours. Boys got their first cut in that chair and came back at forty with their own sons. He knew who had lost a job, whose marriage was thin, who needed a loan and would not ask for one, and he kept every bit of it. Nothing said in that room ever left it. People trusted him with things they had not told their own families, and he carried all of it without complaint for four and a half decades.
He was a deacon at Second Baptist in Muskegon before joining Newaygo United Methodist, where he sang bass and served on more committees than he admitted to. He coached the Fremont middle school track team for eleven years, unpaid, because the position had gone empty. He kept a jar on the counter that paid for two boys' senior trips and one girl's first semester of books, and he never once said whose money it was.
The family will receive friends Wednesday evening. The shop will stay closed the rest of the week, and Curtis would tell you that is fine, and that you look good enough for now.
He is survived by his wife of forty-three years, Renee; his sons, Marcus (Talia) Ballew of Grand Rapids and Andre Ballew of Fremont; his daughter, Simone Ballew-Ward of Kalamazoo; seven grandchildren; and his sisters, Cheryl Ballew of Muskegon and Denise Ballew Pope of Detroit.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Otis Jr.