LIVING HISTORY
ANTHONY INSWASTY
COREY’S
Corey’s Pharmacy, the island’s first drugstore, opened on Ocean Drive across from Humiston Park in 1956. A special feature at the beachside pharmacy is
the contemporary collection of unique greeting cards, no matter what year it is.
80
THE RIGHT
PRESCRIPTION
Longtime pharmacy tends to generations
of Vero Beach residents and visitors
BY KERRY FIRTH
If the walls of Corey’s Pharmacy could talk, oh, the stories
they would tell. They’d tell of days of old when the
quintessential corner drug store was the hub for island
visitors and residents. And they’d tell of all the secrets
that unfolded at the soda fountain when area businessmen
met for lunch. Some came for the fresh sandwiches, but others
were there to catch the eye of the beautiful young waitress
by the name of Vangie Smith.
Vero’s elite from John’s Island sat on stools next to barefoot
kids stopping in for a soda after a day on the beach. Cartoonist
Fontaine Fox whose comic strip, Toonerville Fox, ran in
hundreds of newspapers nationwide, often sketched on a
napkin while enjoying a cup of coffee and a pastry. Even the
seven original astronauts would occasionally stop in when
they were staying in Vero Beach during their training at
NASA.
Luke Corey opened the iconic drug store in 1956. Born in
Harlan, Kentucky, he always dreamed of moving to Florida,
which he viewed as the new frontier. After a brief stint in the
Navy during World War II, he heard that Florida was actively
recruiting pharmacists to move there as it developed, so he
went to pharmaceutical school and got licensed in Florida.
As fate would have it, David Gryder, a retired businessman
in Vero Beach, had just built a building between Easter >>