Barton will close the doors of the antique-filled Barton's South Main Drug for the last time at 6 p.m. Dec. 31 after spending 43 years as a pharmacist in Altus.
People can afford to eat here for lunch.
Barton was born in Altus and graduated from Altus High School in 1950. After two years in Korea with Oklahoma's 45th Infantry Division, he enrolled at Southwestern Oklahoma State University on the G.I. Bill and earned a pharmacy degree in 1956. According to Barton, Doc Pruden founded the corner South Main pharmacy and soda fountain in 1928. Barton worked a year and a half for Broadway Drug before being employed by Ira Prewitt, then the owner of South Main Drug. When Prewitt died in 1962, Barton and a partner, Bill Farley, purchased the business and worked together until Barton bought Park Lane Pharmacy in 1968.