Local pharmacy under new ownership

A longtime Clarendon business has changed hands September 3 with pharmacist Mike Butts announcing his retirement.

The new owner of Mike’s Pharmacy has local ties to Clarendon. Pharmacist Mark Land is the grandson of Helen and Billy Jack Land and the late Sellkirk and Lorine McAnear of Clarendon, and he currently owns and operates the Panhandle Drug Store in Panhandle.

Land has hired Mark King to be the full time pharmacist at Mike’s Pharmacy. King grew up in Wichita Falls, graduated high school in 1997 and from the Texas Tech School of Pharmacy in 2008. Mark, his wife Jennifer and their three children, 10-year-old Anderson, six-year-old Campbell, and one-year-old Truett, currently reside in Amarillo. The family will move to Clarendon hopefully within a year.

Mark has been working at Walgreens since graduating from pharmacy school and is very excited about the opportunity to work at an independent pharmacy and serve the Clarendon community. While in pharmacy school Mark had the opportunity to do a clinical rotation at Mike’s Pharmacy and enjoyed the staff and the working environment and has wanted to work in an independent pharmacy for some time.

Land currently lives in Panhandle with wife Callie and three daughters Mackie, 9; Leah, 6; and Carly, 4. He has owned and managed the drug store in Panhandle for more than five years. Land graduated Panhandle High School in 1994 and the Texas Tech School of Pharmacy in 2001. He was employed at the Veterans’ Administration for seven years before moving back to Panhandle in 2008. He is the son of Steve and Deborah Land.

Mike’s Pharmacy has been in Clarendon for 34 years, starting in the old Gibson’s discount center where Lowe’s Family Center is located today before Butts moving to the pharmacy’s present location in the mid 1980s.

“As I enter my retirement years, I want to thank you for 34 years of support,” Butts said in a advertisement to his customers. “I want each of you to know how special you have been to me and my family. I am going to pursue my passion for travel and will continue to live in Clarendon.”

Land says customers should not expect any major changes.

“The same great staff will remain at Mike’s Pharmacy along with the outstanding service, business hours and delivery service,” Land said. “We look forward to continuing the relationships that Mike and his staff have built with you over the past three decades. Along with Mike, we look forward to making this a smooth transition for all of you. We wish Mike the very best in his hard earned retirement.”