Kilpatrick’s Drug Store

Kilpatrick’s Drug Store was a downtown staple, offering up healing medicine, slaw dogs, and banana splits. By the time Dolly was in high school, Kilpatrick’s was a popular hangout and a great place to catch up with friends.

At that time, Sevier County High School was just about a block away on High Street. Pharmacist Bill Kilpatrick recalls that the high school students would race to get to the store’s lunch counter after school because seating was limited. He said Dolly always led the crew with her guitar in tow.

He also recalls the Parton’s fondly. With twelve children, Dolly’s parents were regular pharmacy customers – especially during cold and flu season. Her mother, Avie Lee, knew everybody and loved catching up with the folks in town. Her father, Lee, worked at the local rock quarry. When Doc Williams sold the pharmacy to Bill Kilpatrick, he let him know that Mr. Parton had a line of store credit and was faithful in paying off whatever he could every payday. Bill Kilpatrick says they were just “good, honest people.”

Kilpatrick’s was a Rexall Drug Store originally owned by Doc Williams who had attended pharmaceutical school with Bill Kilpatrick’s father. Doc always told Bill, who wanted to be a pharmacist, that if his own son didn’t take up the profession, he’d sell the business to him. Doc’s son chose a different path and when it came time to retire, the old pharmacist called on young Bill to buy him out. Lacking the funds, Bill declined, but Doc offered the opportunity to buy the shop on time, paying as he could. Bill accepted and stepped into a thriving pharmacy business – which also included the sale of cosmetics and dry goods and, of course, an old-fashioned lunch counter.

Popular food items at Kilpatrick’s Drug Store included hotdogs, sandwiches, Coca Cola, and ice cream. When the teenagers made their way to Kilpatrick’s after school, they filled the store with energy and conversation. Bill Kilpatrick recalls Dolly and her friends could get especially loud. “I’d be in the back trying to fill prescriptions and couldn’t hear myself think,” Kilpatrick laughs. “I’d go out and say ‘now girls, you’re going to have to quiet down’. Of course, they would – after they giggled a little more. They were just having a good time.”

In 1976, Bill Kilpatrick, his wife, Georgia, and their two sons moved to the old Mullendore farm on the banks of the Little Pigeon River. What began as a hobby – just a few apple trees by the barn – quickly blossomed into a business Smoky Mountain visitors were hungry for. Extra apples were sold on the roadside so they wouldn’t go to waste. Then, folks buying the apples asked for cider. The Kilpatrick’s obliged. Fried apple pies, ice cream, and all sorts of treats soon followed, and the Apple Barn & Cider Mill was born. Today the farm is home to two restaurants, a bakery, ice creamery, winery, cider house, candy shop, gift shop, and thousands of apple trees blooming on the hillside. Bill, Georgia, and the boys are still there every day tending the orchard and continuing to grow more stories right here in Sevierville.