Posted on Mon, Aug. 04, 2008

Jep Castleberry says he never had to wonder what career he would follow when he was growing up in Forsyth.

His father, Jeptha Edgar Castleberry Jr., ran the pharmacy that his father, Jeptha Edgar Castleberry Sr., had owned before him.

"When they had career days at school, I went but didn't need to. I always knew I'd come home and be the third generation running the drug store one day," he said.

Even when he was finishing Mary Persons High School as a star quarterback under famed coach Dan Pitts and had a chance to go to college on a football scholarship, his future career was a key to choosing a school.

"I was born and raised in a pharmacy family, so I knew wherever I went had to have a pharmacy school. Auburn, South Carolina, Clemson and Georgia Tech were the main ones recruiting me. Auburn and South Carolina had pharmacy schools, so it had to be one of them. The coaches at Clemson and Georgia Tech said I could take classes from other schools in the summer and go on to pharmacy school later. Pepper Rogers almost had me talked into Georgia Tech, but in the end it had to be Auburn because of pharmacy school."

After graduating in 1980 and a short internship in Pensacola, Fla., Jep Castleberry III returned home to work with his father and mother, Willene, at Castleberry Drug Company.

"That was the plan all along. I had thought about maybe going out to Colorado for a while. I had a friend living in Aspen, and I thought it would be fun for a couple of years to work in a drug store a couple of days a week and be a ski bum the rest of the time. But Dad called and needed me to come home and help him, so I did. That was in 1981, and I've been here ever since."

He says he has no regrets that he didn't have his fling in Colorado.

"I was able to work with my Dad for 13 years before he died when he was only 68, and I'm thankful for every day I had with him," Castleberry said.

Though he is the third Castleberry to operate the family pharmacy, he says there was at least one more generation in business in the county.

"Jeptha Thomas Castleberry, I'm not sure if he was my great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather, owned a general store in Cabaniss. He had fought in the Civil War. We've still got a cash register from his store."

Castleberry's grandfather Jeptha Edgar Sr. was a pharmacist and part owner of what eventually became Castleberry Drug Company.

According to "Monroe County, Georgia, A History," published by the Monroe County Historical Society in 1979, the business was founded about 1888 by Dr. O.C. Collins, who had a medical practice in Forsyth. Oliver Morse bought the store about 1910, and when he died it was taken over by his brother-in-law Ashley Phinazee. In the early 1930s, Phinazee and young pharmacist Jeptha Castleberry became partners in that drug store and another in town.

When Jeptha Castleberry died in the late 1940s, his wife, Kate, and son, Jeptha Edgar Castleberry Jr., split the businesses with Phinazee - the Castleberrys keeping the store on Lee Street directly across from the Monroe County Courthouse, and Phinazee taking the one across the square.

"My grandfather died relatively young. My father had enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 to fight in World War II, then gone to the University of Georgia on the GI Bill. But his mom had to call him home from school when his dad died, so he wasn't a pharmacist. But he ran the store and hired pharmacists until I finished school."

He also moved the business from the downtown square a block north on North Lee Street in 1973 into a new, larger building.

"That was something of a gamble. He was the first local business to move off the square. He told me later that he had asked one of Forsyth's top businessmen what he thought of the move, and the man told him he would go broke. Dad said it worried him to death, but within two months he knew he had made the right decision. His business started growing, and it has kept growing all through these years, even with the big chain pharmacies coming in."

Jep Castleberry bought the business from his parents in 1991, and he remodeled the store in 2003, adding a new drive-through window, refurbishing the soda fountain and increasing the gift shop area.

He has 10 employees, including another pharmacist, and his wife, Beverly, handles the gift shop and the books.

"It's been a good business. I used to worry when the new chain stores started coming and the pharmacy magazines were preaching doom for the independents, but it hasn't happened. There is still room for the independents. We just concentrate on service and taking care of our customers.

"I know I lose some business because I can't stay open as late as the chains, but I can counter with my compounding lab and our delivery service and history. I quit worrying when I realized it's about having a life and making a living, not being out to get every nickel in town."

Castleberry, 51, says he hopes to keep his family business going as long as he's healthy and enjoying it as much as he does now.

But there will not be a fourth generation taking over when he's done - he and Beverly don't have children.

"All good things come to an end," he laughed. "But hopefully there will still be an independent drug store here. It'll just have a different name."

To contact writer Chuck Thompson, call 744-4489.