After 59 years of making friends while cutting and styling hair, Barstow native, Army veteran and popular barber Eddie Santini has died.
Eddie, who was 79, died on June 7, 2025, and will be remembered during an upcoming service, his family told the Daily Press.
“Eddie and I were married for 55 years, and we celebrated our anniversary in April,” Karen Santini said. “He loved his family so much and we loved him.”
Karen said Eddie closed his shop in October 2021 while battling an illness, a subject he rarely discussed with anyone.
Eddie’s daughter, Angelique “Angel” Rivera, said not only did her father light up every room with a smile and endless laughter, but he was the pillar of the family.
“Our family was beyond lucky to call him ours, there will never be another like him, so every memory will never be forgotten, he is forever cherished,” according to the daughter, who called her father a strong man who never faltered, and the best dad, husband and grandfather.
The Great Santini
A few friends of Eddie Santini said they nicknamed him after a 1970s movie starring Robert Duvall.
“We’d walk inside his shop and say ‘It’s The Great Santini,’ said David Pederson, a former regular at the now-shuttered Santini’s Hairworks on Main Street.
“Eddie’s barbershop was the place where everyone hung out and talked shop,” Pederson added. “We complained, listened, laughed — and Eddie was the ringmaster of it all.”
Pederson, who recently moved to Arizona, said Eddie was “one of the many pillars” that made Barstow a community.
Finding love in a barber shop
After graduating from Barstow High School in 1963, Eddie served in the U.S. Army until he was honorably discharged.
He then attended barber college in San Bernardino and returned home to work at a barbershop, Karen said.
“Eddie was four years older than me and me and my friends would stop by the Uptowner and talk to him,” she said. “We started dating in 1969 and married the following year.”
Eddie would later strike it out on his own and open a barbershop near the now-shuttered Beacon Bowling Alley.
“At his shop, Eddie used a leather strap and straight razor,” Karen said. “His business grew because he was an old-school barber, who loved to chat and tell jokes. I think the guys liked that.”
Family time
Karen would later give birth to a daughter, Angelique, who married Adam Rivera. Together, they have a son, Tyler, and a daughter, Taylor, who still lives in Barstow.
“Eddie loved to spend time with his daughter and grandkids, that was his life,” Karen said. “He’d called our daughter a ‘daddy’s girl.’ He loved her so much.”
Karen said she’ll miss Eddie calling her ‘bear,” fixing the back of her head and making tamales with the family every Christmas.
Daddy to the rescue
Angelique said her father would always be there for her whenever she needed him no matter what time of day or night.
“Like the one time I had to call him over because there was a baby snake in my house,” she said. “I called him and he left work immediately with his customer’s half hair cut, and they came over and got the snake out of the house.”
Angelique recalled when she was a little girl, her father would rent hotel rooms just so she could go swimming and jump on the beds. He also took them to the Skyline Drive Inn and made Christmas a special time.
“We would do spontaneous trips to Laughlin or Vegas just for fun,” Angelique said. “As a little girl, I used to tell my dad I wanted the moon and that was one of the few things he couldn’t give me.”
An adventurous grandpa
On Sundays, Eddie would take his grandson to the outdoor Victorville swap meet to look around and would always end the day with lunch at Wienerschnitzel, Karen said.
“He would take Tyler to his great grandma’s house and Tyler would mow the lawn while papa would water the trees in his giant straw hat,” she said.
One holiday memory included Eddie hanging Christmas ornaments on creosote bushes and teaching Taylor and Tyler how to shoot them off with BB guns.
His grandkids said Eddie would always knock on the fence or window and have a pizza or some sort of food in hand with a smile, always thinking of us.
“He would take the grandkids to Circus Circus and win bags of stuffed animals just to see them smile,” Karen said. “When Taylor was a little girl around 3 years old, she took her granny’s ring and put it in her hair and went outside and buried it in the dirt and then took papa outside and said she had found it and said it was hers and papa believed Taylor.”
A happy and kind man
Lorraine Jean O’Donnell took to Facebook to thank former Barstow Mayor Joe Gomez for answering her request to have a priest give Eddie his last rights.
O’Donnell said Gomez answered and a priest was at Eddie’s bedside in less than 30 minutes.
Mike Enriquez, a schoolmate of Eddie’s, said his friend was a great person who was always happy and kind. He also shared his condolences with Eddie’s wife and family.
Eddie is also survived by his sisters, Pauline Villarreal, Phyllis Ortiz (Edward), Margie Sanchez (Julian), and Theresa Butler, as well as his brother Gilbert Santini. He was preceded in death by his father Felix Santini and his mother Ruth Garcia and his stepfather Rafael Garcia.
Services for Eddie Santini will be held at 10 a.m. on June 25, at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church, his wife said.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Loved ones mourn the death of popular barber Eddie Santini of Barstow
Reporting by Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press / Victorville Daily Press
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