Transgender Warrior: The story of Birmingham's Jody Suzanne Ford
By Julie Buckner Armstrong
August 02, 2012

http://weldbham.com/local/2012/08/02/transgender-warrior-the-story-of-birminghams-jody-suzanne-ford/


Jody Suzanne Ford was one of Birmingham's first transsexuals and owned a hair salon. She was shot to death in 1977. Photo courtesy Birmingham Post-Herald.

Details about Ford's life are sketchy. My own memory is like that of many Birmingham residents. I got my first "big girl" haircut at Ford's popular Five Points South salon, Ms. Sid's Coiffures. I remember her as media sensation, not as actual person.
Mostly, I remember my mother's nine words on the subject: "Don't stare, it's not polite" and "Ms. Sid looked good." Indeed she did, as existing photographs of her show.

Salon patrons describe Ford as kind – and as a character. At 6'4" and well over 200 pounds, she commanded the rooms she walked into.
And she enjoyed doing so, says a former client named Michael.

Michael remembers a time that he and Ford ate dinner at the Social Grill after a haircut. The waitress took Michael's drink order, gestured at Ford and asked, "What does he want?"

Ford stood up, towered over the waitress and screamed, "He, he . . . where do you see a HE?"

Ford then spent the next hour telling Michael all he wanted to know about changing from male to female.
....
Efforts remain underway to place Jody Suzanne Ford on the National Transgender Day of Remembrance List. Her name can already be found on different local sites across the country.