By Donna Price

dprice@americanpress.com

Few family-owned businesses can say they’ve been around more than a century, but Gordon Drug Store has bragging rights in that department. The independent drug store has been a Lake Charles staple for 123 years now.

A new book out by Bill Shearman and Barbara Gunn Gayle, “Memories of Gordon Drug Store,” recounts the saga of how Gordon’s came to be and why it continues to thrive today.

Filled with vintage photos, old advertisements from the store and family stories, the book will serve as a walk down memory lane for many area residents who remember things like the store’s old soda fountain in its heyday, it’s exclusive gifts and cosmetics offerings, Max the boxer who “worked” at the store for 11 years, and long time employees like Frank Guillory, who began making deliveries for Gordon’s as a teenager.

Guillory stayed on for 50 years, first making deliveries on a bicycle, then a motorcycle and finally, a car. Frank’s son Arthur, or “Gus” works there now.

Which brings up one reason Gordon Drug store is still around: The owners have a history of treating employees like family, and many of those employees stay around for a long time.

The store’s saga begins with Smith Waddell Gordon, a pharmaceutical student who graduated with honors from Tulane University in 1892 at age 17. Gordon found his way to Lake Charles. In 1897, Gordon and Frank Von Phul co-owned Lake Charles Drug Store at the corner of Pujo and Ryan streets.

In 1912, Gordon bought out Von Phul, becoming the sole owner of the drug store.

The death of Gordon in 1931 was not the end of the store.Gordon’s daughter, Bernice, who graduated from LSU in 1928, had joined her dad as a pharmacist at the store. After her father died, Bernice took charge of things.

Bernice, who never married, was joined by her two sisters, Eleanor Gordon Gunn, head of women’s cosmetics, and Ruth Gordon LaRavia, who served as secretary. Business was good.

“It was unusual in 1931 for three women to be managing a successful business during the Great Depression. They were to manage Gordon’s for the next 40 years, still at Ryan and Pujo,” reads the book.

Bernice opened up other Gordon Drug Store locations throughout the city, which are all outlined in the book.

In time, these other locations were closed or sold and by 1957 sole operation was at 409 S. Ryan, near St. Patrick Hospital and across from Fourth Ward Elementary School and Drew Park.

The next shining star in the Gordon’s lineup was Eleanor Gordon Gunn’s son, Gordon Samuel “Sonny” Gunn, born in 1924. He became a pharmacist and joined the Gordon team, taking the reins of leadership when Bernice retired in 1970.

Gordon Samuel “Sonny” Gunn’s wife, Barbara Roberts Gunn Gayle, is one of this book’s authors. Eleanor Gordon Gunn trained her daughter-in-law in the fine art of the cosmetics business. Barbara admits the extent of her makeup went no further than “a touch of lipstick,” when she began working at Gordon’s.

“We carried the complete Elizabeth Arden line,” said Barbara.

Eleanor told her, “If you don’t use it, you can’t sell it,” so Barbara began to use the full slate of Elizabeth Arden products.

Gordon Drug Store’s present owner, George Paret, graduated from Pharmacy School in Monroe in 1976. He became Sonny’s partner, and the two men planned and built the store’s present location at 2716 Lake St. When it opened in 1980, it became the first drug store in the area to have a drive-up window and a computer.

“I hated that damn (computer) but Sonny said it would revolutionize our business. It ran so hot it had to have its own fan. Then one of us had to drive it to Dallas to get it worked on but Sonny was right,” recounts Paret in the book.

In 1993, Sonny and Barbara Gunn sold the store to Paret. Sonny died two years later, in 1995, at age 70.

Today Gordon’s remains one of the last-surviving independent drug stores in Southwest Louisiana. Gordon’s eight full-time employees have a combined 145 years of service.

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“Memories of Gordon Drug Store,” by Bill Shearman and Barbara Gunn Gayle was designed by Carol Campbell Gunn. The 28-page soft cover book costs $14.95 and is available at Gordon Drug Store, 2716 Lake St.

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Meet the authors

Meet authors Bill Shearman and Barbara Gunn Gayle at a “Memories of Gordon Drug Store” book signing scheduled for 3 – 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 14 at Gordon Drug Store, 2716 Lake St.