January 20, 2017 - An open house was held at Blount Pharmacy on Monday, January 16, 2017 to mark a new milestone for the business which was to welcome Karen Moss and Anne Magnus as the new owners and to wish Gene and Betty Kay Blount a happy retirement after 37 years.
Karen Moss expressed her excitement over being the new owner with her mother, Anne Magnus, "I'm feeling nervous excitement; it's getting better though, I'm doing what I love which is actually being a pharmacist, taking care of people, and spending more time with my family - that's going to be the best part." Moss finished by saying how much the support of the community has meant to her, "People here seem really nice so far and I just love it."
Moss is from Center and she has been a pharmacist in Alto for nine and a half years. Moss and her mother spoke to Gene Blount back in January of last year after hearing of his consideration to sell the store.
Gene Blount said, "We have just been incredibly blessed with the store, we started in June of 1980. Just opened it up in a portable building right over here on the edge of the slab. We rented a couple of years then we built this building in 1983, I think."
Reflecting on the 37 years of the drug store, Blount said, "When we moved here my oldest daughter was 11 and my youngest daughter was 4. [All three daughters] finished school here and they all went to college and got degrees."
"I wanted to live in a rural area and I have and we just, like I say, have just been incredibly blessed and we have enjoyed our time here. After that many years, so many changes in independent retail pharmacy, I'm getting old and I don't change that well anymore." Blount expressed how much he has enjoyed his job and he had a really good relief pharmacist which allowed him to take off for traveling but it was just the hassle of a business which was making him consider selling and then he heard from Karen and Ann.
Gene Blount was a pharmacist in Center, Carthage, and San Augustine after college from 1971 to 1980. Around 1979 he decided he would like to have his own store in the Joaquin area which is were he grew up and graduated from school.
