02/25/2026
This is Janna Hicks, Jerry’s Daughter…
Sit and stay a spell, as I have a story to tell…
As many of y’all know, on October 11, 2025, my daddy - Jerry Rogers - passed away suddenly.
On October 13, we started the uncharted (for us) process of keeping Jerry’s Pharmacy open. While I won’t bore you with the details, I will say that many surreal conversations took place that first week…not the least of which was talking to the DEA as I was on the way to Daddy’s funeral.
While I am a pharmacist by degree and licensure, I have owned a travel agency full-time for 7+ years. My brother, Jason, owns and runs the Gun Shop of Gadsden, just two doors down from the drugstore. My sister, Sissy (Jennifer to “newbies”), is an elementary school teacher. Running a drugstore while maintaining our own careers was not on our bingo cards.
So we started the process my daddy had begun even prior to his death: selling the drugstore he and our mother, Polly Rogers, had poured their blood, sweat, and tears into since 1976. The drugstore that consumed our childhoods. The drugstore that brought my parents from the brink of poverty.
Daddy had held steadfast to the desire to sell the store to an individual, to keep it an independently-owned pharmacy. In the event of his death, we weren’t sure that was even still possible.
More than ten years ago, Jerry hired two young men to do part-time relief work at the drugstore. These guys had recently graduated from Samford University’s School of Pharmacy - the very same pharmacy school Daddy attended in the 70s. Over the years, Daddy would say to each of them, “You’re going to buy my store.” I’m not sure either of them (Daddy included) believed it would ever become reality.
Well, it did. It has.
I want to introduce to you the new owners of Jerry’s Pharmacy: Logan Bailey and Zac Brown. When they first approached us with a desire to buy the drugstore, we were ECSTATIC at the possibility, primarily because we knew this would have made Daddy so very happy. But then it looked like it would not happen after all. Sad but resigned, I started reaching out to corporate chains, hoping to at least sell the files to another local store.
But then a conversation occurred between Jason and Zac…and we all renewed our hope to make this long-held desire of Daddy’s come to fruition.
The hoops have been jumped through. The gauntlet has been run. The red tape has been cut, wrapped, and cut again. The contract has been signed. The long and daunting process is over.
As of March 1, 2026, Jerry’s Pharmacy will live on under the leadership and ownership of Bailey and Brown Apothecary LLC but the Jerry’s Pharmacy name will remain.
November 1, 2026 marks FIFTY years since Jerry’s Pharmacy first opened on a corner of Wall Street in Alabama City. Thanks to Zac and Logan, Jerry’s Pharmacy will still serve its customers - both old and new - at 300 Wall St in Alabama City.
The employees will stay the same: Matt, Peggy, Betty, Anissa, and Jerry (the delivery guy) will still be there. The only difference will be the stark absence we have all felt since October 11: Jerry Rogers will not be there.
But I know Daddy would love that Logan and Zac are the two who will be continuing the dream begun by a young pharmacist in 1976, eager to provide for his young family and serve the people of Alabama City.
Our mother, Polly, returned to the drugstore for the first time since Daddy’s death just to sign the contract for the sale of the drugstore…as you can see from the smiles in this picture, it turned into a much more joyous occasion than any of us expected.
Bittersweet.
End of an era.
Turning the page.
The story of Jerry’s Pharmacy has not ended; it has a new chapter.
Welcome to Wall Street, guys.
