END OF A LOCAL ICON
AFTER SERVING HIS NEIGHBORS FOR 37 YEARS, PHARMACIST WILL CLOSE WARREN'S DRUGS

 

RURAL HALL

Darle Shouse didn't want to do it. He tried mightily to find an alternative.

But he will be closing Warren's Drugs in Rural Hall on June 8, leaving Forsyth County with just four privately owned pharmacies.

Shouse, who has run Warren's since 1967, had surgery March 12 to relieve pressure on nerves in his back. He is using a wheelchair and works just two hours a day, three days a week.

Last week, the old sign out front, "Hand-Dipped Ice Cream & Milkshakes," was taken down and a new one, "Warren's Drug Store Thanks You for 37 Great Years," was put up.

Inside the store, the main topic was the closing. The grill will shut down June 4.

"The time of the neighborhood drugstore is going away," said Joyce Culler, a customer who lives in Winston-Salem. "I don't reckon they can make it."

B.G. Warren opened the store in 1948 in downtown Rural Hall, near where the post office and Kiger Furniture Co. are located. Warren moved the store to its present location on the corner of Broad and Wall streets in 1964. Warren died in 1966, and Roger Sloop took over as pharmacist in July of that year.

Shouse graduated from the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked two years at the University of Virginia Hospital. He moved back to North Carolina and spent seven years at King Drug. He then became Sloop's partner at Warren's in January 1967. Sloop left the business in the early 1980s, Shouse said. Jimmy Kiser worked as a pharmacist at Warren's for about 15 years, and Bert Mueller was there for five years.

The store's history weighs heavily on Shouse. He pulled out a box of prescriptions and showed off the first one, dated July 1948. But the closing will end more than just the prescription business.

"I go back to the customers," he said. "We've had such a close relationship. If they needed something on weekends or over holidays, they didn't hesitate to call me at home."

Warren's is unusual because it's not part of such chains as CVS Pharmacy or Eckerd Drugs, and it's one of the few pharmacies that still has a lunch counter with a soda fountain.

When Warren's closes, the only privately owned pharmacies in Forsyth County will be Andrews Pharmacy on South Hawthorne Road, Medicap on Reynolda Road, Jonestown Pharmacy on Jonestown Road and Marley Pharmacy on Peters Creek Parkway and Hawthorne Pharmacy on South Hawthorne Road.

Shouse said he operated the business as long as he could. Laura Lennon has commuted from Greensboro to run the pharmacy since his surgery.

"She's been a godsend," Shouse said. "A year ago, she was working one day a week. After March 12, she's worked a lot."

When he couldn't find a replacement pharmacist, Shouse first looked for a buyer to keep Warren's at its present location.

"I struck out, although I had two or three prospects," he said.

He finally decided to close Warren's, and he hired Eckerd Drugs in Rural Hall to take over his prescriptions.

Dr. Davey Stallings, a co-owner of the center that houses Warren's, said that the owners should find a new tenant.

"It's sad for Darle's sake, for the community's sake and for our sake," he said.

Shouse said he will concentrate on rehabilitation, swim at the YMCA in King and spend time with his grandchildren.

He says he will miss 37 years of connecting with people.

"The hardest thing is that I won't be seeing good customers and patients," he said. "It's like a big family here. They (customers and staff) think it's sad, but I say it's no more sad for them than it is for me. I have a great staff and congenial customers."

Andi Edwards says she actually got sick when she learned that Warren's would close.

"We cried, everyone cried," said Edwards, who runs the grill at the snack counter from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. five days a week. "We boohooed for 45 minutes, for the whole day. It's sad. I hate to leave here. We have a lot of birthday parties here - we keep up with everyone's birthday. We party down."

Edwards said that the customers had joked that now they will come over to her house at noon for food and companionship.

Customer Buddy Boles said he might go to a fast-food restaurant.

"But it won't have the same atmosphere," he said. "And we probably won't have the same group."

Boles said he's been coming to Warren's since 1989.

"It's a very social place, where we can get all the gossip," he said.

"This is a great place to stop in and enjoy a sandwich and not be in a hurry," Culler added. "It has a nice atmosphere. There's no hustle and bustle."

Ann Campbell, one of Shouse's 10 employees, says she has enjoyed working for him.

"Mr. Shouse has been so helpful," she said. "When it was snowy or icy, he'd call to pick us up."

"Warren's is a place to let your hair down," said Nancy Plunkett, a customer. "We cry together, and we laugh together. It's a really good place to congregate and see all of your friends."

Mildred Lentz, 81, says she likes to talk and get the news.

"If I didn't come down here, I don't know what I'd do," she said.