P&S Pharmacy celebrating 90 years

Oct. 19--As the only locally-owned pharmacy in Corsicana, P&S Pharmacy celebrates its 90th year in business with a slew of festivities this week.

Refreshments will be served from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, Oct. 20-22. On Wednesday, there will be free hotdogs and drinks from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday. Can't make it during the day? The Corsicana/Navarro County Chamber of Commerce will host a Business After Hours at 5:32 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21.

Try your luck guessing how many pills are in the canister during the same three days, and on Wednesday a prize will be awarded to the one closest to the count but not over.

P&S Pharmacy is the last of its kind in Corsicana, the home-owned and operated pharmacy. Where once there were quite a few "Mom and Pop" pharmacies in town, they have since gone the way of land line telephones, movie stores, and live television. Eased out by big box companies that can offer prescriptions for $4, P&S has held its ground in a world constantly changing the last 90 years.

Trena Weidmann has owned P&S since 1982, when she purchased it from Jim Stephenson.

The official "birth date" of the pharmacy is Oct. 24, 1924. Mr. Pierce and Mr. Simpson started it (hence the P&S) and Pierce owned it until his passing in 1956, when he died behind the counter. Stephenson came from another Rexall Pharmacy in Lampasas, and purchased the business after the passing of Pierce.

Trena and her twin sister Tresa (now Darby) had grown up in Corsicana, the granddaughters of the late August "Gus" Weidmann, founder of Collin Street Bakery. While Tresa always had the itch to move away from Navarro County, Trena went off to pharmacy school at the University of Texas at Austin, with a different plan in mind.

"Everyone else wanted to go to Austin to live back then, but I couldn't wait to get back home from Austin," she laughed.

She worked weekends and holidays for Stephenson, and the plan was for them to own and operate the business together. When Stephenson was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Weidmann bought the business.

"When I bought the business from Jim, it was one pharmacist, two clerks, and one delivery person," she said in 2009. "Now we have two pharmacists, one relief pharmacist, five pharmacy techs, two office personnel, three clerks, and six delivery men."

Obviously doing something right, Weidmann and her staff have had to learn to adapt in the changing times, as insurance made the medicine business more complex, along with computers, and let's don't forget Obamacare. Customers taking more than one prescription must be monitored cautiously, so the drugs don't react badly with one another, since many patients have more than one doctor.

"When I purchased Reid's Pharmacy customer list in 2001, it doubled my business," Weidmann said. "Then in 2004, when CVS bought R&H and Beaton Pharmacy, my business more than doubled again. Being the only independent pharmacist, my business has grown nicely, especially considering I never thought I would own the pharmacy."

Weidmann's shyness caused her to believe she would never be a "front man," and her goal was to be content being behind the scenes until high school classmate Phillip Samuels began working on her entrepreneurial spirit, planting seeds of inspiration to own her own pharmacy one day.

As the business celebrates 90 years, Weidmann was asked how she might celebrate the 100th anniversary.

"It would be hard to project the future," she said.

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Deanna Kirk may be reached by email at dkirk@corsicanadailysun.com

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