Published: April 06, 2006 10:58 am         

Star Pharmacy closes doors

TUTTLE — Jim and Ann Arganbright quietly marked 40 years of service through the Star Pharmacy on Friday. It was a milestone they were glad to reach, but they knew it would be their last. That day was the last day the pharmacy would be open for business.

Several things led up to the closing. The Arganbrights’ health had gotten to a point where they had to hire an additional pharmacist to help fill prescriptions. That pharmacist was offered a higher paying job elsewhere, and took it. Jim Arganbright said that his health prevented him from working full-time, and he couldn’t pay a pharmacist enough to keep him or her without losing money.

“There’s certain things we can’t do anymore,” he said.

The pharmacy has been up for sale for more than a year, and a sale that almost went through last year fell through at the last minute when the buyer was offered a more lucrative position than buying the Star would bring.

“He chose the better of the two deals,” Jim said Tuesday night. “With the advent of all these superstores like CVS, Walgreens, and Eckerds, coupled with insurance and government intrusions, the profitability is just not there anymore.

So with what they saw as no other choice, the Arganbrights decided to close. On Monday, employees Theresa Lingle, Janie Hodges and Alisha Tasetano showed up for work, but the lights were kept off. Tasetano went home, but long-time employees Lingle and Hodges stayed to help the arduous task of transferring prescriptions. Jim took a piece of white posterboard, and a marker, penned a note explaining the close and why, and attached it to the front door.

“We’ll keep the building open this whole week to facilitate customers’ transfers to other pharmacies,” Jim said. “The simple and heartless way would have been to just sell our customer list to another pharmacy. But the people of Tuttle have been really good to us. I thought we owed then that extra consideration.”

Jim said that anyone with a prescription at the pharmacy that still had refills on it should call or come in to let them know where to send those refills to. He said that people are sending their prescriptions all over, including Mustang, Newcastle, El Reno, Chickasha and Oklahoma City. Many, he said, were being transferred out to the Cedar Springs Pharmacy east of town.

“People have expressed regret that we had to do this, but all good things come to an end,” Jim said. “With Annie and I both on our last wheels, there’s no alternative.”



Pharmacy roots run deep

The roots of the Star Pharmacy go back farther than the Arganbrights, to the earliest days of Tuttle. The first drugstores in town were the Eagle Drug and the Palace Drug. The Eagle Drugstore went broke and was taken over by the Bank of Tuttle, who sold it to the Latham family. They sold out to the Gannaway family, who changed the name to Star Pharmacy. In 1918, Virgil T. Gannaway came back from World War I and began working as a pharmacist for his father. At the time, the Star Pharmacy was located where the tag agency is today.

The fountain counter was brought to Tuttle on a ferry before statehood, and had been stored in the grocery store at the present city hall. Gannaway acquired it and installed it at the pharmacy. Future judge Alfred P. Murrah worked behind that counter making sodas during his high school years in Tuttle.

Jim said that in 1929, Gannaway and Dr. James Frank Renegar began construction on the pharmacy’s present building but were brought to a halt by the stock market crash. They were able to start work again in early 1931, and the Star Pharmacy moved across the street. The fountain counter made the move as well.

A few years later, Gannaway met Jim Arganbright through politics. Both were republicans in a county dominated by democrats. Jim had been working at the Liberty Drug in Chickasha when the Corner Drug came up for sale in the same town. He and two others bought the Corner Drug as a partnership, and Gannaway would visit the store when he had business in Chickasha. Jim began dropping by the Star on his way to Oklahoma City.

The Arganbrights met while working at Liberty together, and they lived in Chickasha for 16 years before moving to Tuttle.

Gannaway started the slogan, “Let Gannaway be your druggist,” and until his death, many Tuttle residents made him just that. Gannaway died in February 1966, and Jim and Ann decided to purchase the pharmacy from his family. They moved to a home in Tuttle and took over the pharmacy operation on April 1, 1966.

“We were the second owners of the Star Pharmacy,” Jim said.

“Mrs. Gannaway was sure of herself that we had to keep the name,” Ann said. “Of course, we would have anyway.”



End of an era

The Star Pharmacy continued in Tuttle, and generations enjoyed filling their prescriptions at the little drugstore and getting a treat at the fountain. Little changed inside the store as the decades passed.

Even the employees remained the same, clocking decades themselves at the drugstore. Theresa Lingle and Janie Hodges have been familiar faces since the 70s, and Kay Franklin worked at the store for years as well, until she was forced to quit for health reasons.

“Jim and Ann’s store could have easily been portrayed in any Norman Rockwell painting,” said Mayor Lonnie Paxton. “You hate to see any building close, but particularly one that is an icon for Tuttle.”

Paxton said that he did his business at the Star Pharmacy. After school, his older children would come by his downtown office and run across the street to the pharmacy.

“My kids went there for their malts and Salty Frogs,” he said, referring to a special Star Pharmacy concoction of ice, lime and salt. “Not all my kids are going to have the same memories that i had there. It’s sad for the downtown. It’s sad for the entire town. It’s a place that generations have visited, and you hate to see it close.”

Paxton said that he understood why the Arganbrights had made the choice, and said he appreciated all the years they put into their business and for Tuttle.

He was affected by the closing on the very first day - when he had a prescription to get filled. He ended up taking it to Kent Hinds at Cedar Springs Pharmacy.

Jim Arganbright said that the pharmacy filled about 60 prescriptions a day, and even more treats at the counter. Fans of both have told him how sad they are at the closing.

“All the kids want the fountain to stay and the adults want the pharmacy to stay,” he said.

Once the prescriptions have been transferred, Arganbright needs to sell off the remaining drugs. He is looking for a drugstore or wholesale house to purchase the medicines from him. Then the Arganbrights plan to have an auction to sell the building and contents. After the sale is complete, they hope to get stronger physically, then spend some time traveling.