Two Families

I found two interesting family pictures in the Simmons Studio Collection of negatives.  One family seems so jolly,

After seven children and upteen thousand years together, Mom and Dad are still sitting close together. Dad's even taking the opportunity for a little elbow feel. Happy Dad.

The other picture is also of a couple and their adult children.

Everyone in this family is so serious.  They've made it through the Great Depression and now they have a son in the service.  They've been through a lot.

Does anyone recognize either family.  If you do, leave a little story about them in the comments.

The Wonderful Bond Between a Parent and an Only Child

Some of the pictures from the Simmons Studio collection tell a heart-warmng tale about the special love that parents feel for their only child.

Look at this happy family:

The joy they've found in their only child is apparent, but it's nothing like the bond that has formed between this boy and his loving parents.

He's relaxed into his father's arms, but he's exchanging an impish glance with his mother that leads me to believe they share a charming secret that Dad isn't wise to.  Kind of like, "So Dad still hasn't realized that the chocolate you gave him this morning was really Exlax?"

If anyone knows the identity of either happy trio, please leave a comment on this page

Williams Drugs

Do you remember Williams Drugs?

Lots of people called it "The Courthouse Drug Store" and for good reason.  Murry F. Williams bought the store which stood at 203 N. Holden, in March 1947 from Roy Courtney (Courtney - Courthouse.  Get it?). Rather than remove the old Courthouse Drug Store signs, Williams just put his sign up with the others.  

It wasn't until December 2, 1960 that he remodeled the building and formally opened the store as Williams Drug Co.  

Maybe that's when he removed the Court House Drug Store lettering done in concrete below each window. In 1962, the business phone number changed from 101 to 747-3551 so the sign in the upper left hand corner had to be changed, too.

Here's an excerpt from The Daily Star Journal written on Dec. 1, 1960:

"Mr. Williams...purchased the store in March 1947... Later that year, Mr. Williams' father, the late Murray Q. Williams, sold his interest in the Vernaz drug store to his partner, Reynolds Archauer, and assisted his son in what is now known as the Williams Drug Company.  Mr. Willaims died in June 1954.
"Mrs. Williams, the former Jacqueline Hogan of West Plain and their son, Jack, now are in the store and another salesman is C.A Kanoy.
"Clarence Harvey, Negro, has served as porter in the store for many years."

Here's what that building looks like today.

I wonder where those concrete Courthouse Drug signs are.

Ma Brown's Q-S Lunch

Many people may have memories of Ma Brown's, a little sandwich-and-beer shop on the courthouse square.  Buddy Baker certainly does.  He spent a lot of time there when he got back from following the pipeline that was being built across the nation just after World War Two.

(Warnick Dodge stood to the east of Brown's and Harmon Motors was to the west.)

He had made friends with another pipeliner from Warrensburg, Billy Brown, who was the son of Laura "Ma" Brown and her husband Hick.  Hick was a trucker who hauled cattle from this area to the Kansas City Stockyards leaving Brown's Q-S Lunch for his wife to run.

When the two young men got back to Warrensburg, Buddy joined the 52-20 club. (The government gave World War Two vets a 52-week pension of $20 a week allowing them to take a year off to recover from the trama of war.)  Buddy and Billy spent their free time at the restaurant.

Buddy remembers it as a friendly place where college students and factory workers congregated for lunch. Some people came in to wait for the bus that ran several times a day between Warrensburg and Whiteman Army Airfield until the airbase was demobilized.  There were booths and a Seeburg Jukebox.  A yellow cat named Seeburg greeted the customers.

The Brown family even introduced Buddy to another regular custormer, Francis Walz, who would later become his wife of 50 years.

Ma Brown's is now Old Barney's on the Courthouse Square. Notice that the top of the facade has been removed so that it is now lower than the building to the right of it.

Does anyone else have any memories of Ma Brown's Q-S Lunch?  If you do, we'd love to hear them.