Published: July 22, 2009 08:51 am      

Johnnie Dale Griffin: The Griffin children take a look back

Reflecting on the productive life of their mother, and the hard earned lessons they learned

PICAYUNE — While the Griffin children may not remember having too much freedom in their childhood, they are grateful, looking back, for the strong work ethic that was instilled in them by their parents as they reminisced about the life of their mother, Johnnie Dale Griffin, who passed away at the age of 92 in June.

An only child, Griffin was born in Sandy Hook, Miss. She moved frequently with her parents until her senior year of high school when she was sent to live with an aunt in McLain, Miss. When her parents eventually settled in Leakesville, Miss., she was able to join them and it was there she met her future husband, Ben Griffin Sr.

After high school, Griffin continued her education, graduating in 1938 from Mississippi Woman’s College (what is today William Carey) in Hattiesburg. Earning a degree in liberal arts, she taught second grade until she was married in 1939.

In the beginning of their life as a couple, Ben Griffin Sr. and Johnnie Griffin lived in Texas. He worked as a chemist during World War II and then as a pharmacist at a chain drug store, until the opportunity came up for the family to move to Picayune in the mid to late 40s. The move mostly came at the insistence of Johnnie Griffin’s parents who wanted their only child closer to home.

Once in Picayune, it was Johnnie Griffin and her husband, who founded City Rexall Drugs when they purchased the already existing City Drug pharmacy in 1947 from the current owners. The business, which was originally located at 101 N. Main Street, changed names to City Rexall in the 50s when the Griffins decided to make the store a part of the Rexall drug store chain. When the Rexall chain was dissolved, the Griffins decided to retain the Rexall name. Today the business is still in the family and is operated by the Griffins’ youngest son, John Griffin.

For Johnnie Griffin’s part, in addition to being the mother of five, she became co-owner, co-manager and bookkeeper of the drug store. As the story goes, Ben Griffin Sr. employed Johnnie Griffin’s help, which was only supposed to last approximately three months.

“Daddy promised her that if she would help him get started then she could go home and raise the kids,” said eldest child Caroline Scott. “It didn’t work that way. Once she got down there, she was there forever. And I think it was something that she enjoyed.”

“It was. She told me she really wanted to be there,” said daughter Mary Kathryn Scott.

Caroline Scott continued, “The drug store was our home, our family, our social life, our business life… we, [the Griffin children], kept saying, ‘Man, if we ever get out of this store, we’ll never step foot in it again,’ and then two of us turned out to be pharmacists — don’t ever say never.”

The Griffins had five children, Carolyn Scott, Edward Griffin, Mary Kathryn Scott, Ben Griffin Jr. and John Griffin. Two of five, John and Edward, followed in their father’s footsteps to become pharmacists.

At least John, Caroline and Mary Kathryn agree that their daddy was a type A personality and a stern taskmaster with his children, making sure that everyone always had a job to do under his thumb, in the confines of the drug store. The little ones dusted shelves, while the older ones stocked those shelves, and so on.

“We were all raised in that drug store. Three of us were born in Texas, and I was the oldest, and we moved here just in time for me to start first grade,” said Caroline Scott. “The two that were born after [the move] actually almost went straight from the hospital to the drug store.”

The always industrious Ben Griffin Sr., in addition to owning and operating the drug store, also established a radio station in Poplarville in the early 60s, WRPM AM, then WRPM FM. He was initially an investor but became the sole owner after a split in the founding partnership. Johnnie Griffin also kept the books for the radio station, but, according to son John, she continued operating her end of the businesses from the drug store, her home away from home. The family sold the station in 1987, two years after Ben Griffin Sr. passed away.

It was the drug store and interacting with customers that continued to be the major focus of Johnnie Griffin’s life, even after her husband’s death, until her retirement. She continued working when her son John took over the store.

John Griffin recalled when he was remodeling the store, at its pre-Katrina location, that he had plans to build his mother an office in the back so she could continue her bookkeeping with some privacy, but the action was thwarted by a determined Johnnie Griffin.

“She put a stop to that, she said no, she wanted to be out [in the store] where she could see people and talk to people,” he said. “So I wound up making her a little enclosure for her desk that was almost looking at the front door.” It was from this vantage point that she worked until the age of 85, when she finally retired.

Then, the children noted incredulously that their mother finally did something that she had not done since she went to work in the store in 1947 — she traveled.

“After never leaving the drug store… not one family vacation,” said daughter Mary Kathryn, “then she went on a lot of trips.”

With her son Edward Griffin, Johnnie Griffin loved going to Las Vegas every year to watch professional bull riding, an interest she developed later in life which her children still marvel at today.

“She would go out in her wheelchair and she would enjoy that; she even had her picture made with some of the bull riders,” daughter Caroline said. She remembers her mom even knowing by rote some of the riders stats and records.

Johnnie Griffin remained mobile and self-sufficient until her last six months when one day she was out and about in downtown Picayune and twisted her ankle. In and out of hospitals in Hattiesburg and Poplarville, “she never came back home after that,” said daughter Caroline. Johnnie Griffin passed away in Poplarville on Tuesday, June 16.

She was buried in New Palestine Cemetery on Thursday, June 18. She is survived by all 5 of her children, her 12 grandchildren and her 14 great grandchildren.

She will be missed and remembered by her family and all who frequented the City Rexall drug store.

[Source: “Johnnie Griffin: 80 years young and still going strong,” by Reni Winter, published Sunday, April 27, 1987 in “Profile… Sunday Magazine,” a publication of the Picayune Item.]