Pics from the Past

1. Reese Pharmacy was a longtime business in downtown Lebanon. John Reese started working for Sidney Drug while a freshman in high school. He worked behind the soda fountain and delivered prescriptions, cigarettes and alcohol on his bicycle. Tom Conner, Curt James and Burley Jones were the pharmacists for the store. After Tom Conner bought Sam Farrar Drug & Book Store, he asked John to come back to Lebanon from Kansas City and work for him. He worked there until joining the Naval Corps in 1942. Following the war, he applied to the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Enrollment was full so he applied to University of Kansas City (now UMKC) which also had a pharmacy school. He accepted and attended for one year. The college had only one pharmacy professor, and rumor had it the school of pharmacy might light their accreditation, so he decided to reapply to STLCOP, which was rated no. 3 in the nation behind New York City and Philadelphia. He and his wife Bonnie returned to Lebanon the next year and he worked for Tom Conner at Conner Drug while waiting to hear from STLCOP. He was accepted and he started school in September 1948. He used the GI Bill to fund his college degree. He and wife Bonnie established Reese Pharmacy in downtown Lebanon (103 W. Commercial St.) in 1957. John was the owner/pharmacist until they sold the store in 1986. The business was located a number of years next to State Savings Bank at 103 W. Commercial St. and later moved to the former Bond Drug Store location at 109 W. Commercial St. in 1972. He then worked at the Fort Leonard Wood Pharmacy for several years before going to work for Mercy Pharmacy where he stayed until officially retiring at age 92. He died Sept. 20, 2021, at the age of 100. John Reese, left, is shown working at the soda fountain at Conner Drug Store in early 1940s.