For generations of Warsaw residents, Boring Rexall Drug was more than a place to pick up a prescription. It was where neighbors gathered for morning coffee, teenagers stopped for a cold drink, and familiar faces greeted customers who had been coming through the doors for decades.
People talked about everything from local politics to the weather. They shared friendships, family connections, and plenty of stories around the coffee table. And somewhere along the way, the pharmacy became part of Warsaw's identity.
Now, with Boring Rexall Drug closing its doors, those memories are taking on a little more meaning. Four people with different connections to the business including Andy Boring, Randy Eaton, Lyla Weaver and Dana Koll shared their stories about the pharmacy, its history and the people who made it special. Together, their memories tell the story of a Main Street business that became part of everyday life in Warsaw.
For Andy Boring, the history of Boring Rexall Drug is also his family's story.
As the oldest son of longtime owner Robert "Bob" Boring, Andy grew up around the pharmacy, watching his father build relationships with customers who often became friends.
The business's story goes back even further. According to Andy, the location's history dates to around 1930, when Dr. E.T. Robbins, a physician and pharmacist, ran a social club and lending library that eventually became a pharmacy.
Andy's grandfather, Eugene Boring, worked as an apprentice pharmacist before purchasing the business around 1940. After Eugene died in 1950, the pharmacy went through another period of ownership before Bob Boring purchased it in 1957.
Bob served during the Korean War, attended Drury College and graduated from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy before returning to Warsaw. He purchased the business and gave it the name that generations of residents would come to recognize: Boring Rexall Drug.
For Andy, what stood out most was his father's dedication. Bob didn't just work regular business hours and go home. He was known for opening the pharmacy nearly every day, including holidays. Even on Christmas and Thanksgiving, customers could often count on finding him there for at least part of the day.
They didn't always come in for medicine. Some stopped for coffee. Others needed batteries or a few household items. Many simply wanted to visit. That was the kind of business Bob operated.
Andy remembers working at the pharmacy himself as a youngster and later as a young man, seeing firsthand how much the store meant to his father and the community.
Bob continued operating Boring Rexall Drug until 2004, when he sold the pharmacy to Dana Koll. By then, the family business had become one of Warsaw's most recognizable Main Street landmarks.
For Andy, the memories are personal. But he also understands that the pharmacy became part of many other families' stories.
Ask Randy Eaton about Boring Rexall Drug, and the conversation quickly turns to coffee. Not necessarily because the coffee was anything special. The people sitting around the table made the place memorable. Eaton grew up in Warsaw, where his family operated businesses along Main Street, including a John Deere dealership and later a Ford dealership. After college, he returned to Warsaw in the late 1970s and began a banking career that included about 20 years with Community Bank of Warsaw, which later became part of UMB Bank. He eventually helped establish another local bank at the location now occupied by Equity Bank.
Through those years, Boring Rexall remained a familiar stop. For decades, a group of local men gathered at the pharmacy around 8 each morning. The conversation could cover just about anything. They talked about property, businesses, local happenings, and whatever else was making news around town. And, of course, there was always a little gossip. For Eaton, those conversations offered a window into the community. People talked about the changes taking place in Warsaw, including construction of the area's dam and the road closures and changes that came with it. The coffee table became a place where residents could exchange information, share opinions, and catch up with neighbors. Eaton remembers familiar faces like Bob Boring and John Reser as part of the pharmacy's everyday life. One memory that has stayed with him came on Sept. 11, 2001. Like Americans across the country, Eaton watched the terrorist attacks unfold on television. But he remembers watching the coverage at Boring Rexall, surrounded by members of the familiar morning coffee crowd. It was one of those moments when a place known for ordinary conversations became somewhere people gathered to make sense of something extraordinary. For Eaton, that is part of what made the pharmacy special. It wasn't simply a business where people came and went. It was a gathering place where friendships were built and where the community's history was discussed, one cup of coffee at a time.
For Lyla Weaver, the memories of Boring Rexall Drug begin with a trip down the hill from school. Weaver moved to Warsaw in 1957 and remembers visiting the pharmacy during her high school years in the 1960s. At lunchtime, students hurried down the steps from the schoolhouse hill and headed to the drugstore. And one of the favorite treats waiting for them was a Chocolate 400. The sweet drink was part of the pharmacy's soda fountain tradition, something that made Boring Rexall a popular stop for young people. Weaver remembers Hatty May preparing those drinks. But it wasn't just the chocolate 400s that brought people back. It was the atmosphere.
Bob and Bonnie Boring helped create a place where customers felt welcome, whether they were picking up a prescription, enjoying a drink, or simply stopping to visit. Weaver also remembers the older men who gathered for coffee, sharing what she jokingly described as the wisdom of the world. Those conversations were part of the pharmacy's personality.
Employees also became familiar faces over the years, including Brenda Noland, whom Weaver remembered from the 1960s and who stayed connected with the pharmacy during its final days. But perhaps one of Weaver's strongest memories isn't something inside the building. It's the sign outside. The familiar orange-and-blue Boring Rexall sign projecting from the building became a symbol of downtown Warsaw. For Weaver, seeing that sign meant something. It represented a place she had known since childhood and a business that had been part of the community for generations. She compared losing that familiar landmark to losing a limb of the town itself. It's a feeling that goes beyond nostalgia for a soda fountain or a favorite childhood treat. For Weaver, Boring Rexall Drug was part of what made Warsaw feel like home.
While Andy Boring remembers the family's history, Randy Eaton recalls the morning coffee crowd, and Lyla Weaver treasures her childhood memories, Dana Koll tells the pharmacy's final chapter. For her, the decision to close was anything but easy. Koll began working for Bob Boring in 2000. Four years later, in March 2004, she purchased the pharmacy from him and continued operating the business. For more than 22 years, she served as the pharmacist in charge, building relationships with customers and employees while carrying on the tradition the Boring family established. Koll pointed to the country's economic conditions and years of inadequate insurance reimbursements as major factors in her decision.
Rather than simply closing the doors and walking away, she wanted to find a way to help the people who had depended on the pharmacy.
"I tried to find someone who would be good to my customers and my employees rather than just shut the door and walk away," Koll said.
Her first hope was to find someone willing to buy Boring Rexall and keep the pharmacy running, as she had when she bought it from Bob Boring. But that opportunity never came together. So Koll began looking for another solution. Koll herself plans to join them once she completes her remaining responsibilities at the former pharmacy. She said she hasn't yet determined how many days a week she'll work there.
For Koll, keeping those relationships intact was an important part of the decision. "I understand the importance of this pharmacy and this building," she said. She knows the business meant something to Warsaw, and she wanted to handle the closing in a way that respected both the customers and the employees who helped make it successful. It was not the ending she had hoped for. She believes finding a pharmacy willing to serve the customers and employ familiar faces was better than simply shutting down without a plan. "I just appreciate every single person that we've had the opportunity to come in contact with," Koll said. "I've enjoyed the last 22 and a half years." She also understands that some customers may be disappointed by the closing. "I wish things possibly could have been different, but they aren't, and so this is the best I could do, and I hope people understand that," Koll said.
Her words reflect the difficult reality of closing a business that had become such a familiar part of the community. For Koll, the pharmacy wasn't simply a place where she worked. It was where she spent more than two decades serving neighbors, getting to know families, and carrying on a tradition that began long before she arrived.
Four people. Four different connections to one familiar place. For Andy Boring, it was a family legacy stretching back generations, built around his father's dedication to serving Warsaw. For Randy Eaton, it was the morning coffee table, where neighbors gathered to talk about the news, share stories, and keep up with what was happening around town. For Lyla Weaver, it was the chocolate 400s, the familiar employees and the orange-and-blue sign that became part of the downtown landscape. For Dana Koll, it was more than two decades of caring for customers and employees, followed by the difficult responsibility of deciding how that service could continue after the pharmacy closed.
Each remembers something different, yet all four stories share something in common. Boring Rexall Drug was never just about prescriptions, medicine, or merchandise. It was about people. It was about knowing the person behind the counter, recognizing the faces around the coffee table and having a place where someone might stop for five minutes and end up staying half an hour. Those kinds of places become part of a town's character.
Businesses change. Owners retire. Buildings take on new purposes, and familiar signs sometimes become reminders of another time. But the relationships formed inside those buildings don't simply disappear when the doors close. Some of the employees who served Boring Rexall customers will continue working at J&D Pharmacy. Koll plans to be there, too.
The stories of the Boring family, the coffee crowd, the soda fountain, and the generations who passed through the pharmacy will remain part of Warsaw's history. For a business that served the community for so many years, that may be its most meaningful legacy.
Boring Rexall Drug may have reached the end of its chapter on Main Street. For the people of Warsaw, its story will be remembered for a long time to come.
