I'm posting my newspaper column from yesterday. Not only is it Lebanon history but I often get requests from people who know about it but didn't see it the first time and most times I don't have time to go back into my archives and find it. So hopefully you will file it away where you can find it again. LOL
REMEMBERING GILBERT VERNON AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD GROCERY STORE
I appreciate the calls this week from those of you inquiring about the absence of my columns. I have a painful back condition which has kept me from working at my computer for the past two weeks. I have gone back into my files for an article I wrote for the community news page several years ago. I chose it because it features Gilbert Vernon who has been chosen as a recipient of one of the 2016 Community Achievement Awards for the Wall of Honor at the Cowan Civic Center next week. I am submitting it just as I wrote it several years prior to his death, but I am updating the information at the end.
The Neighborhood Grocery Store
Remember the little grocery store on the corner in your neighborhood?
If you grew up in Lebanon fifty or more years ago, you probably do.
All of us had one. My first memory was the one located on the corner
of Jackson and Hayes. We lived on Hayes the summer of ’48 and I
wasn’t in school yet, so I don’t remember much about it except the
first time my Grandma Dame let me go there by myself to buy a loaf of
bread. I thought that was such a big deal.
The first corner grocery store I remember really well was the one
owned by Miles and June Appling at Wood Street and Michigan Avenue.
We passed it every day as we walked to school from our home in what
was then called Old Town on the corner of Wood and Apple Streets.
Except for having to walk so far to school, I loved living in that part of
Town. Nobody had ever told me about racial discrimination so I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to enjoy having as many black neighbors as white. I wouldn’t trade that experience of diversity in the 50’s for anything.
This week I want to focus on Gilbert “Gib” Vernon’s store on the
corner of Fourth and Harrison. It was Milan’s neighborhood grocery
store and he worked there all through his junior high and senior high
years saving his money for barber college. It later became mine by
default because he continued to work there while we were courting
and again after we were married when he was putting in some extra
hours in the evening after barbering all day.
Our first home was the little house on Murphy road which we rented
from Fran and Letha Murphy, so we stopped by Vernon’s every evening
after work to pick up groceries for supper.
Gib was not only our grocer in those days, as well as Milan’s employer,
but he was Milan’s Best Man in our wedding and has been one of our
dearest friends over the years. He and Milan share the same birthday,
but 15 years apart.
Vernon’s Market is one of the longest continually run businesses
in Lebanon. His parents, Martin Dove and Nettie Vernon,
started the General Merchandise store in 1919. If you’re good at
math, you can see that was 93 years ago. The first store was built
about 150 feet south of the present building and Gib built the present
building in the early 50’s.
Gib was born in 1928. His mother had 12 children but only 3 of them
survived birth, and Gib was the youngest of those three. His mother
wasn’t able to nurse him and she often told him he was raised on
Durham Red cow’s milk purchased from Bill Mizer who had a dairy farm
up the hill from the store where the Hillcrest Baptist church now
stands.
Martin Dove died when Gib was only 2 years old and Nettie Vernon
continued to run the store by herself with some help from Gib’s 2
sisters, Olive and Letha, and a hired hand from time to time. Gib
remembers the name Othie Smith as one of the employees.
Nettie kept a baby bed in the back of the store for Gilbert , so he
literally cut his teeth in the grocery store business and it’s no
surprise he is still there every day and loving every minute of it.
His mother worked in the store as long as she was able. She died in
1967.
Gib was drafted into the army in 1951 and served until 1953. During
that time the store was leased to Firman and Valeda Snyder .
Gib married Loretta Amos in 1956 and they had five children, Olive
Mayes, who lives in Farmersville IL, Martin who lives in Waynesville and
owns the Waynesville Memorial Funeral Chapel and the Richland Memorial Chapel, Carol Vernon who helps her dad run the store today, Susan Crisp, who lives in Nixa, and Lori Vernon who works in the Lebanon St. John pediatric clinic.
Over the years Gib sold uniforms and shoes for such businesses as
Reliance Factory, and H.D.Lee, various garages and many other businesses.
His uniform business kept two Lebanon ladies busy doing alterations
and sewing on emblems. Georgia Shadel and Mary Plunkett had an
alterations room in the back of the store for a long time.
He provided employment for a lot of neighborhood kids in addition to
Milan. Milan’s brother Shelva and my brother Leon Lindsey both worked
there at one time.
But Gilbert Vernon has a much higher calling than even the grocery
store business. He is a devoted follower of Jesus Christ and is a
charter member of Hillcrest Baptist Church where he attends faithfully
and serves as a deacon, and if he’s not at the store you can almost be
sure he is helping out in some activity at the church such as the Hilltoppers’ monthly meetings.
Updates as of October 2016: Gilbert Vernon passed away on February 22, 2014. The store is now operated by Carol Vernon under the name of Vernon’s General Merchandise. There is a quick shop and convenience store at the front, and Carol also sells antiques, furniture,
gifts and jewelry at the store.
REMEMBERING GILBERT VERNON AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD GROCERY STORE
I appreciate the calls this week from those of you inquiring about the absence of my columns. I have a painful back condition which has kept me from working at my computer for the past two weeks. I have gone back into my files for an article I wrote for the community news page several years ago. I chose it because it features Gilbert Vernon who has been chosen as a recipient of one of the 2016 Community Achievement Awards for the Wall of Honor at the Cowan Civic Center next week. I am submitting it just as I wrote it several years prior to his death, but I am updating the information at the end.
The Neighborhood Grocery Store
Remember the little grocery store on the corner in your neighborhood?
If you grew up in Lebanon fifty or more years ago, you probably do.
All of us had one. My first memory was the one located on the corner
of Jackson and Hayes. We lived on Hayes the summer of ’48 and I
wasn’t in school yet, so I don’t remember much about it except the
first time my Grandma Dame let me go there by myself to buy a loaf of
bread. I thought that was such a big deal.
The first corner grocery store I remember really well was the one
owned by Miles and June Appling at Wood Street and Michigan Avenue.
We passed it every day as we walked to school from our home in what
was then called Old Town on the corner of Wood and Apple Streets.
Except for having to walk so far to school, I loved living in that part of
Town. Nobody had ever told me about racial discrimination so I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to enjoy having as many black neighbors as white. I wouldn’t trade that experience of diversity in the 50’s for anything.
This week I want to focus on Gilbert “Gib” Vernon’s store on the
corner of Fourth and Harrison. It was Milan’s neighborhood grocery
store and he worked there all through his junior high and senior high
years saving his money for barber college. It later became mine by
default because he continued to work there while we were courting
and again after we were married when he was putting in some extra
hours in the evening after barbering all day.
Our first home was the little house on Murphy road which we rented
from Fran and Letha Murphy, so we stopped by Vernon’s every evening
after work to pick up groceries for supper.
Gib was not only our grocer in those days, as well as Milan’s employer,
but he was Milan’s Best Man in our wedding and has been one of our
dearest friends over the years. He and Milan share the same birthday,
but 15 years apart.
Vernon’s Market is one of the longest continually run businesses
in Lebanon. His parents, Martin Dove and Nettie Vernon,
started the General Merchandise store in 1919. If you’re good at
math, you can see that was 93 years ago. The first store was built
about 150 feet south of the present building and Gib built the present
building in the early 50’s.
Gib was born in 1928. His mother had 12 children but only 3 of them
survived birth, and Gib was the youngest of those three. His mother
wasn’t able to nurse him and she often told him he was raised on
Durham Red cow’s milk purchased from Bill Mizer who had a dairy farm
up the hill from the store where the Hillcrest Baptist church now
stands.
Martin Dove died when Gib was only 2 years old and Nettie Vernon
continued to run the store by herself with some help from Gib’s 2
sisters, Olive and Letha, and a hired hand from time to time. Gib
remembers the name Othie Smith as one of the employees.
Nettie kept a baby bed in the back of the store for Gilbert , so he
literally cut his teeth in the grocery store business and it’s no
surprise he is still there every day and loving every minute of it.
His mother worked in the store as long as she was able. She died in
1967.
Gib was drafted into the army in 1951 and served until 1953. During
that time the store was leased to Firman and Valeda Snyder .
Gib married Loretta Amos in 1956 and they had five children, Olive
Mayes, who lives in Farmersville IL, Martin who lives in Waynesville and
owns the Waynesville Memorial Funeral Chapel and the Richland Memorial Chapel, Carol Vernon who helps her dad run the store today, Susan Crisp, who lives in Nixa, and Lori Vernon who works in the Lebanon St. John pediatric clinic.
Over the years Gib sold uniforms and shoes for such businesses as
Reliance Factory, and H.D.Lee, various garages and many other businesses.
His uniform business kept two Lebanon ladies busy doing alterations
and sewing on emblems. Georgia Shadel and Mary Plunkett had an
alterations room in the back of the store for a long time.
He provided employment for a lot of neighborhood kids in addition to
Milan. Milan’s brother Shelva and my brother Leon Lindsey both worked
there at one time.
But Gilbert Vernon has a much higher calling than even the grocery
store business. He is a devoted follower of Jesus Christ and is a
charter member of Hillcrest Baptist Church where he attends faithfully
and serves as a deacon, and if he’s not at the store you can almost be
sure he is helping out in some activity at the church such as the Hilltoppers’ monthly meetings.
Updates as of October 2016: Gilbert Vernon passed away on February 22, 2014. The store is now operated by Carol Vernon under the name of Vernon’s General Merchandise. There is a quick shop and convenience store at the front, and Carol also sells antiques, furniture,
gifts and jewelry at the store.
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