Murr Rexall Drug - A Place Where Kids Were Trusted

Top: Marie and Verl Murr purchased Rexall Drug in 1953. Verl had managed this store for the previous eight years.

Below: Five kids reading comics in Murr Rexall Drugs in 1956. 

Photo by

  
Marie Murr  

Written by 
LeRoy Walls 
CEO and Founder 

As a kid growing up in the 1950’s, we had been taught to respect our parents and elders. (In those days parents told their kids “No” but kids never told their parents “No”.) Most kids respected their elders but not all elders, and business people, respected or trusted them. Some store keepers kept a close watch on us. An exception was Verl Murr at Murr Rexall Drug. In those days farm families, like mine, often went to town on Saturday mornings. While parents picked up farm supplies, groceries and other needs the kids usually had time to kill. Kids were always welcome at the Murr Drug Store.

Murr Rexall Drug was a frequent meeting place for kids and a favorite part of the store was the magazine rack. The four shelves held dozens of different magazines like: Life, Saturday Evening Post, True Confessions and Field and Stream. We kids had little interest in these but sure liked the comic books on the bottom shelf.

I don’t recall any special rules being posted but we all understood that it was okay with Verl Murr, the owner, for us to read the comic books. We were generally respectful of this privilege but we were also kids so before the comic books were replaced with new issues they showed lots of wrinkles and discoloration from our use. This was especially true of the most popular comic books like: Spider Man, Archie and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Years before McDonald’s began having play areas for kids, the Murr Drug Store on Main Street in Cabool was providing a place for kids.

4/1/2007