Help Sought To ID WWII Silver Dollar Service Members
For 50 years, Bonnibel Sweet and her sister, Jean, owned and operated Brown’s Drug Store on the Pineville square, prior to and in the midst of WWII.
The hometown pharmacy sat catty-corner to the historic courthouse, carrying essentials like aspirin and Pepto, while also offering the luxuries of a classic soda fountain atop a shiny, marble countertop surrounded by bar stools begging to be spun.
Area youth often stopped by the store on their way home from school — sometimes to pick up a sweet treat and other times just to socialize. Before long, Sweet was viewed as a sort of a second mother to many.
As WWII raged, more and more of the young men and women Sweet had befriended went on to sign up for the service and ship out. Sweet wanted these service members to have a token from home, so she began giving each a Silver dollar upon their departure. Sweet asked for only one thing in return — a photo of them in uniform.
“They were like ‘good luck’ pieces,” said Lynn Tatum, president of the McDonald County Historical Society.
Sweet went on to exchange letters, postcards and pictures with those serving, all the while tracking their locations on a map displayed in the drug store. Each photo she received of a patriot was then carefully saved in an album and cherished.
The album grew to feature more than 100 beloved characters, but only 3 or 4 photos had names scrawled on the back. Now — 75 years later — the McDonald County Historical Society is reaching out to the community in an attempt to put names to the faces of these Silver Dollar Service members and preserve a precious piece of local history.
It’s an opportunity that Tatum thought she might never have. Tatum had heard the story of
Sweet’s album has seen the drug store exhibit come to life at the museum, but when Sweet’s daughter, Donna Lou Goodman, died the album was thought to be gone. This thought prevailed until Sept. 5, 2020, when Michael Goodman discovered the album and donated it to the McDonald County Historical Society.
“We were so excited and thrilled to have it back,” Tatum said. “Here we had all this history in our hands!”
Since then, MCHS board member and library director Hazel Sheets is spearheading the campaign to identify these men and women. Sheets has made handouts of the unidentified veterans available at all library branches and taken to Facebook to highlight a different Silver Dollar Service member each week. Tatum says 27 individuals have been named to date.
In 2015, an exhibit immortalizing Brown’s Drug Store opened at the McDonald County Museum. Donna Lou Goodman sponsored the project in honor of her mother, Sweet.
Much like the original drug store, Tatum said the room quickly became a favorite hang-out spot for the youth.