Myrtle Walgreen, often called the co-founder of Walgreen Drug Stores, was born in Carbondale, IL in 1879. She married Charles Walgreen in 1902. He opened his first store in 1901, and they established the C. R. Walgreen and Co. in 1909. It is now the nation’ largest drug store chain with over 8,000 stores. Walgreen’ premiered open-shelf merchandising, popularized the in-store lunch counter, and in 1992 debuted ” thru pharmacy”. Mrs. Walgreen was a pioneer in 4-H support as the first woman to serve on the National 4-H Service Committee Board and the first individual to finance an awards program in a national 4-H project area. She said when she was widowed in 1939, ” thing I put my heart into was my 4-H Club responsibilities.”
Mrs. Walgreen personally sponsored the Beautification of Home Grounds 4-H project from 1937 to 1962, served on the Board of Trustees of Shimer College from 1943 to 1955, and was elected to the National 4-H Service Committee Board in 1958. In 1962, the 4-H Service Committee President Chris Christensen presented Mrs. Walgreen with the National 4-H Donor Merit Award for her 25 years of personal support. She attended National 4-H Congress annually well into her 90s and delighted in engaging “” winners. In the 1960s she began underwriting the cost of producing a complimentary set of colored slides of National 4-H Congress each year, supplying sets to every state – an outgrowth of her recently found avocation of photography.
