Riggs Drug in the 1940s-1950s (PHOTO COURTESY OF WLAF’S CHARLIE HUTSON)

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- Riggs Drug continues a successful run that dates back more than 100 years, 1898, according to the late Terry Ratcliff. “Allen M. Riggs started Riggs in the middle of the block on North Tennessee Avenue; one of very few buildings on the street that wasn’t destroyed by the 1904 fire,” said Charlie Hutson.

Hutson said in about 1919, Riggs moved to the corner of East Central & North Tennessee Avenues. Ralph Eblen started at Riggs in 1922, left in 1932 as Dr. J.H. Grant became the pharmacist. Dr. William M. Riggs started in1940. J.B. and Carmen Eblen became the owner in 1946. Terry Ratcliff and his wife Mary Lynn bought the store in 1961, and then Bob Fannon bought out Terry in 1974. Fannon moved the store to the old S-Mart building in 1981 at the corner of North 11th Street and West Central Avenue. 

Tazewell native Bob Fannon, the youngest registered pharmacist ever in Tennessee at age 20, left Revco and went to work for Terry Ratcliff at Riggs Drug in 1971. “I was a pretty fast and good pharmacist, and after about week and a half, Terry and Mary Lynn went on a month’s vacation,” said Fannon.

This is a Charlie Hutson snapshot from March 2008, the former S-Mart building.

In those days, there were only four insurances we dealt with, and everything we did was on a manual typewritter, Fannon added. “We were doing 400-500 prescriptions a day in the early 1970s,” said Fannon.

Fannon purchased Riggs Drug from Ratcliff in September 1974. Ratcliff soon went on to open what is now Terry’s Pharmacy.

“I worked the store my first two years by myself, and then I purchased The Globe Pharmacy in 1978,” said Fannon. The Globe was in the old Woodson’s Shopping Center.

This is the ribbon cutting for the new location of Riggs Drug in the summer of 2025. Riggs is at 108 South Indiana Avenue.

In 1979, the building that once housed the S-Mart came open. Fannon combined The Globe with Riggs closing both locations and opening in the S-Mart building on June 1, 1981. “We filled almost 1,800 prescriptions on day one,” Fannon said.

Bob’s brother Bill came onboard not long after Bob bought The Globe, 1979. The two then worked together at the big Riggs.

“We had the fountain like The Globe had had, and Mary Wilson ran it. It seated 56 people, and it would be packed everyday. For four or five years, we were open on Sunday, fountain and all. We even, for a while, had a convenience store right when you first entered,” said Fannon.

Elsewhere, in 1982, Fannon bought Winkler’s Pharmacy that once sat near stop light 8. In 1985 or so, he purchased Ken’s Pharmacy, on the corner at the hospital.

Fannon opened a Riggs at Jacksboro in 2000, and in 2002, a Riggs opened at Powell. At one time, we had the second largest independent pharmacy in the southeast. The largest was in Maryville, according to Fannon.

Riggs Drug 108 South Indiana Avenue

“Bobby Gross joined us through the Ken’s Pharmacy purchase, and Chuck Wells ran Jacksboro for us,” said Fannon.

The Ken’s Pharmacy location of Riggs Drug has closed while the Powell location was sold. “Chuck has the Jacksboro Riggs,” said Fannon.

In 2019, Fannon sold the big Riggs to Jonathan Broyles. This summer, Broyles moved from the big Riggs location to the former Thompson Furniture building on South Indiana Avenue. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-09/25/2025-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF’S CHARLIE HUTSON)

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