Fairview Pharmacy was founded in 1978 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi by Dr. Kate Winborne and her husband Larry Winborne. Dr. Kate, a general surgeon whose practice sat just behind the pharmacy, co-founded Fairview. Larry ran the business day to day, alongside pharmacist Gladys Barnett, RPh, who stood behind the counter for decades. For decades it was one of the community pharmacies people in the Pine Belt called by name. People in Hattiesburg, Petal, Oak Grove, and well beyond Forrest County brought their prescriptions there because the people behind the counter knew them by name. That kind of pharmacy was not unusual in 1978. It is increasingly rare in 2026.
In 2016, the pharmacy passed to me. The story of how that happened is the story of the brand as it exists today.
The decision behind the decision
I had spent four years running one of the largest CVS pharmacies in our district, the last 24 hour CVS in Mississippi to discontinue overnight service, and the highest prescription volume location in our district. By every corporate metric, I was succeeding at the highest level. I was the pharmacist the district sent in to turn around stores that had fallen behind on their metrics and prescription backlogs. I was, by reputation, exactly where the system wants its high performers to be.
And I was not doing the job I went to pharmacy school to do.
The decision to leave corporate pharmacy was not a single moment. It was a slow build of small ones. A patient who had been on the same medication for two years asked me a question about it for the first time, and I realized I had never had a real conversation with her about her therapy. A pharmacy technician who I had watched grow into a great clinician asked me, near the end of a fourteen hour shift, why we were spending so much energy on metrics that had nothing to do with whether our patients were healthier. I did not have a good answer.
Hattiesburg, and the Winbornes
The Winbornes built Fairview the way community pharmacies were built before pharmacy became a chain category. Larry ran the business, and pharmacist Gladys Barnett knew the patients, knew their children, and counseled them by name. They closed when families had emergencies. They opened when families needed them. They built a reputation that lasted decades because they did the work, every day, without shortcuts.
When the pharmacy came up for acquisition, the question was not whether the building should keep running. The question was whether someone would carry the standard forward, or whether another chain would absorb the location and turn it into one more transaction counter.
I took on the acquisition loan. I left the corporate salary. I bet on Hattiesburg, on the Winbornes’ legacy, and on the belief that a pharmacy built on real care could not only survive but grow.
What changed, what did not
What did not change: the name. The location. The standard. The Winbornes built Fairview into something that worked, and Gladys Barnett held that standard at the counter through the transition. The job was to honor that, not to redesign it.
What did change: we modernized. We added medication synchronization for patients on multiple prescriptions. We expanded our delivery footprint to reach patients across the Pine Belt and into Lamar, Forrest, and Jones Counties. We invested in clinical services that the chains in Hattiesburg cannot match in depth, including vaccinations, point of care testing, medication therapy management, and pharmacist consultations that take as long as the patient needs them to take.
We also did the harder thing. We stayed open through the years that almost closed every independent pharmacy in Mississippi. Pharmacy benefit manager pressure, DIR fee complications, and reimbursement squeezes have closed pharmacies across the state. We are still here because we adapted, and because the community kept showing up.
What Fairview stands for today
Fairview is not a pharmacy I happen to own. It is the answer to the question I have been asking since I left Emory University with my Master of Public Health and walked into my first pharmacy job.
How do you build healthcare that actually works for real people? You build it where they live. You learn their names. You sit with them when they are confused. You tell them the truth even when it is not what they want to hear. You stock the products you would give your own family. You stay open because someone might need you.
And you honor the people who built it before you, while you build it bigger for the people who come after.
Where the brand is going
Fairview is expanding. A new location is coming to Hattiesburg in the summer of 2026, designed to give us the space to serve more patients with more services. We are launching Fairview Wellness+, a national over the counter wellness line built by the same pharmacist who fills your prescription, so that pharmacist quality care reaches well beyond what we can serve from one counter in one ZIP code.
What is not changing is the foundation. Fairview is and will always be the pharmacy that picks up the phone. The one that knows your name. The one that has been here since 1978, and intends to be here for the next forty eight years and beyond.
If you want to be part of the next chapter
Patients across Hattiesburg, Petal, Oak Grove, Laurel, Ellisville, Sumrall, Purvis, and the rest of the Pine Belt are welcome at Fairview. Serving Hattiesburg, the Pine Belt, Central Mississippi, and South Mississippi.
If you have a prescription at a chain right now and you have been thinking about making the switch, we will handle the transfer for you. It takes about three minutes on your end. If you are new to the area, a new diagnosis, or a new prescription, come in and meet the pharmacist before you fill it. The first consultation is free, and it is the way Fairview was built to work.
This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice. Before starting or changing any medication, including over the counter products and supplements, talk with your pharmacist or physician about your specific situation.