Adrienne Williams Roddy
and LaVogue Salon

5:30pm, Wednesday, December 9th

Adrienne Williams Roddy is always in motion, or at least she seems to be. We talked with Adrienne while she styled a client's hair at her LaVogue Salon on Madison Avenue. The occasion for the conversation was the Mojo of Midtown Awards, handed out every year by MidtownMemphis.Org to individuals, companies and organizations that make Midtown Memphis viable, livable and unique. Adrienne Williams Roddy is one of this year's recipients. Adrienne is being honored for her professionalism, and for her commitment to Midtown, which she has supported "through thick and thin" in the same location for thirty years. Born and raised in Memphis, she started styling hair at age fifteen("In the African American community we start doing hair out of the house).After high school Adrienne went off to college but in the back of her mind she already knew what she wanted "I attended UT Knoxville for two years and I decided i wanted to come home because I knew that hair was my calling.," she told us. "So I asked my mom and I promised I would never let her down. And I didn't. I came home and attended beauty school and never turned back. "Adrienne loves Memphis and thinks it's on the upswing, although she'd like to see a sharper focus on education, especially in the area of technical training that would help our young people step up into better paying jobs. And she'd like to see more management level jobs that would encourage young people to come back to Memphis after college. In Adrienne's mind it's economics. "We need to grow. If we don't grow our youth will leave and they won't come back and work and help the city to grow. We have to do things in order to keep our youth here. And get better jobs here. "As far as the city's image, she thinks the media, especially television news, are missing a big part of the Memphis story. "When you turn the news on in the morning the first thing you hear are all the negative things that go on. That's not the Memphis that I see. The Memphis I see is affordable living, beautiful weather. It's growing, it's progressing," she says. "They could project it in a better way. They could show more positive things. "Adrienne is very active away from work, but you would expect that. She works out "five days a week "and rides her bike on Sunday. Sometimes she rides over the Mississippi River bridge and sometimes she rides east, taking advantage of the city's growing web of bike lanes. "It's a beautiful ride," she says, "and I don't have to worry about traffic. "But her life revolves in large part around her clients. She likes to make them look and feel their best. And sometimes she works and listens. She describes hair stylists and a barbers as "counselors" at the same time they're cutting hair. "Your clients tell you secrets. That's what they are, secrets. And that's between you and your client," Adrienne says. "They come in to vent. Sometimes they want to vent and they let it all out."