JOHN DAY – A woman walked into John Day Pharmacy around closing time Aug. 28 to tell pharmacist Wally Muzzy that someone waiting in a car outside needed crutches. Muzzy dropped what he was doing to go out and see what kind would be needed. This sort of friendly service was typical at the store that opened its doors for the last time Sept. 1.

Muzzy spent Labor Day weekend with family, boxing up merchandise and medicine to be transferred to Len’s Drug. Greg and Marla Armstrong, owners of Len’s, were there to help pack up with their employees. Files of customers were also transferred to Len’s.

Muzzy still owns that strip of the John Day Plaza that also houses Prime Time Video, but John Day Pharmacy will be dark and empty until other plans are made.

Muzzy will work part time as a pharmacist at Len’s. After awhile, he will decide whether to continue part time or go into full retirement.

Darlene, Wally’s wife, said that they plan on spending some of their free time visiting grandkids, traveling cross-country to visit church historical sites – they are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – and maybe, somewhere down the road, serving a church mission.

Pat Porter, who’s worked for Muzzy as a clerk for 20 years, said she plans to work with Special Olympics and she will be a life-skills trainer for her nephew, Brian McKrola.

“A lot of people are going to be sad to see him go, because he’s been very personable and has gone the extra mile for people,” Porter said, “Wally’s done things for people that normally people wouldn’t do. He’s always been willing to deliver meds, even when the store’s closed.”

Good work ethics seem to be a theme in Muzzy’s life. He only took three big vacations in his 39-plus years of owning his own pharmacy and it wasn’t uncommon for him to clock 70 hours a week.

Muzzy was born in Prairie City and grew up in John Day. At age eight, he made money selling greeting cards and bought a nice wooden desk with the money for his mom, Sylvia. At 10, he began his first real job sweeping floors and washing windows at Blue Mountain Mills, where his dad, Wally Muzzy Sr., was manager. Soon he moved up to waiting on customers, even his future wife’s dad, Herman DeSouza. He was in charge of the paint department at age 12.

The enterprising young man held many other jobs in town, including sweeping floors and folding papers at the Blue Mountain Eagle, flagging for city road construction (he made his own flag) and selling popcorn at baseball games – the concession stand wasn’t being used so naturally, he did.

At age 17, Muzzy entered college at Oregon State in Corvallis, graduating in 1963. He then passed the Oregon and California Pharmacy Boards.

His first job as a pharmacist was with Ed Tussing at Rexall Drugstore where Bargain Hunters is now. After a few years there, he worked in Redmond for one year then received a call from Dick Martin asking if he wanted to buy John Day Pharmacy.

John Day Pharmacy back then was where Len’s Drug is now. Muzzy said that the store front was about 10 feet wide, with Farley’s, a men’s clothing store, on one side and Chester’s Thriftway on the other.

He used part of his coin collection, a favorite pastime, and borrowed money to open the store.

“It was nip and tuck for years,” Darlene said.

Wally recalled his first day opening the store in 1967 when he was 26. He didn’t think about putting money in the till, so he ran home and brought back money from his coin collection, “til about noon, then I rescued them out,” he said.

The store was later moved where Subway is. After some prodding from Mr. Quizenberry, who owned a clothing store where Mountains is, Muzzy bought land and built on the west end of the John Day Plaza. He opened in 1978 and said sales almost doubled.

Although they were advised by owners of other pharmacies in Oregon not to try it, the Muzzys had a soda fountain in their new store.

Bea Pattee remembered the soda fountain well since she worked there from 1982-1990.

“We had sandwiches, homemade soup, homemade pies and chili and the usual fountain goodies such as shakes and sundaes,” she said, “Many of the people enjoyed a quick lunch while waiting for their prescription. It was a pretty busy place during lunch hour and conversation was easy. Wally got to have a hot lunch, even though it was usually a late one or interrupted. Wally was great to work for and my pet name for him was Boss.”

The soda fountain closed down around the same time Muzzy downsized his store and rented space for the video store.

Muzzy has over the years given opportunities to his own children and grandchildren to work at the pharmacy. He remembered when his children Pam and Rod were about 8 and 10. They would occasionally run the cash register. Pam stood on a step stool to reach the till. Customers were impressed that they could count back change.

Muzzy hired his nephew, Andy Day, who was just 8 or 9 at the time, to do security. He would read comic books at the store after school. Muzzy remembered Andy saying, “That guy’s leaving. He just stole something!”

Other family members have worked for him over the years, including his mother, Sylvia Crowell, who did bookkeeping; his mother-in-law, the late Dolores DeSouza, who oversaw the craft department; Pam, who did bookkeeping for a couple of years; Rod, who took over the music section when the store was larger; also Susan Palma; Gary, Chet and Jeanne Day; Cindy, Jane and Elvin Webb; and Herman DeSouza. Steve Thatcher, Pam’s husband, got a computer system set up. Wally wasn’t happy about switching to computers, Darlene said. He walked around it for two years.

“All the grandkids inventoried the store (last January), all five of them. We knew it would be the last year,” Darlene said. They were paid and each got to pick out a miniature figurine from the store. Out of the five, Josh, Joy, Jeremiah, Kirsten and Nicole, Josh thinks he may want to be a pharmacist one day. He’s, a junior in high school, and helped his granddad during the summer this year as a pharmacy tech.

The Muzzys and Porter fondly remembered the many people who worked with them over the years. They didn’t want to leave anyone out by trying to list them all, but they are in their records and not forgotten.

Wally will remember being excited to go to work every day. He also said, “I like to know how the drug works. To find out exactly how the drug works on the body and if it worked.”

On closing the pharmacy, he said, “I know it’s something I have to do, at my age, but I’m having a hard time doing it.”