Barber had cheap prices, generous heart.

The revolving red and blue stripes are stopped inside the duct-taped barber's sign outside 1740 S. East St. The cactus plants in the front window will need watering soon.

Across the street, Sandy Hendrickson watched an elderly man read the bright orange sign on the front door of the barbershop: "To All Who Knew Him! Cliff Has Passed + Will Be Missed."

Clifford Mullis -- known to generations of Southsiders as "Cliff the barber" -- died Tuesday in his favorite chair in his Southport home, holding his wife's hand and smiling. He was 87.

"You're talking about a good man here," Hendrickson said. "He had that barbershop over there for more than 60 years. I took my son over there for his first haircut. He's 32 now."

Mr. Mullis charged $7 for a haircut. He was last cutting hair in his shop three weeks ago.

"He was not one for raising prices," said Mae Mullis, his wife of 61 years. "He said a haircut doesn't last that long to be worth more than $7."

Mr. Mullis charged 10 cents a haircut when he was a 12-year-old in Spencer. He was an Army barber in World War II, "saving his money so he could buy his barbershop in 1946," Mrs. Mullis said.

"He was spry as a chicken and never was one to be sick. He was scared of hospitals and never took medicine in his life. Not one day did he complain. He was always busy, always doing something," she said.

The couple met at a Northside dancing school, won a dance contest at the old Westlake dance pavilion and danced at their 50th wedding anniversary.

"I had a closet of formals," Mrs. Mullis said. "I wasn't bad-looking back then.

"We went dancing almost every night back then. We lived in the house behind the barbershop. I'd have his dinner ready and then off we'd go."

Mr. Mullis kept more than hair shears, cacti and cheap soft drinks in his shop.

"He kept cans of dog food in there for my dog," Hendrickson said. "Someone around the corner, he kept cat food for them. I have a son in a wheelchair, and Cliff would get us applesauce and odds and ends I needed. He'd go to Target or Kmart for me.

"He got things for a lot of people around here. He went way beyond what most people would do. Hello, you're talking about a really, really good man today."

Mr. Mullis' funeral was Thursday at G.H. Herrmann Madison Avenue Funeral Home.

Other survivors include sons Phil and Mark Mullis.