Bill Penn
Penn Drugstore & Soda Fountain
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Bill Penn was born in 1927 in Sidney, IA and grew up helping his parents and grandfather run the town’s drugstore. The son and grandson of pharmacists and owners of the family business, Penn graduated from Sidney high school in 1945 and from the University of Nebraska Pharmacology College in 1949. He started working in the store as a full-fledged pharmacist that same year. In 2009, he celebrated his 50th year as pharmacist and continues to work one to two days a week.
But Penn’s Drugstore is much more than a pharmacy. Like many small town drugstores, Penn’s has a full-fledged soda fountain. The current one was installed in 1926. Says Penn, “it’s been patched and kept running all these years . . . [cut: That’s] An important part of any store in a small town is the thing that draws the people in. And that soda fountain does that in this town. So I hope we always have a soda fountain operating here.”
Contact: Bill Penn, Penn’s Drugstore, 805 Webster St., Sidney IA 51652, 712-374-2513