A piece of Dixon history: The love affair of Myrtle Walgreen and Dixon 

Editor’s note: This is the final part of our series on Dixon’s Charles Walgreen, the founder of Walgreens. The first five parts, covering from his birth in 1873 to his death in 1939, were published Nov. 1, 15, 29 and Dec. 6 and 20.

DIXON — After the legendary Charles R. Walgreen died at 66 in 1939, you might think that the connection between Dixon and the Walgreens would begin to fade. After all, Dixon was Charles’ hometown, not Myrtle’s or their children’s.

But the Walgreen connection to Dixon actually increased as Myrtle became more involved in the community. For the next several decades, Myrtle loved Hazelwood, and Dixon loved Myrtle.

Opening up Hazelwood

Myrtle’s first major opportunity to open up Hazelwood to Dixon – and the world – took place in September 1941, only 21 months after Charles died. The event was Louella Parsons Day, which Myrtle described as “one of the gayest events in Hazelwood’s history.”

Parsons had graduated from Dixon High School in 1901 and had since become a famous Hollywood columnist. When Dixon welcomed her back in 1941, Parsons brought several Hollywood celebrities with her, including Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna, Joe E. Brown, Ann Rutherford, George Montgomery, Bebe Daniels, Ben Lyon, and, of course, Ronald Reagan.

“All of them stayed at Hazelwood,” said Myrtle, noting that they had a “hilarious time.”

Myrtle and Ronald

The big event of the Dixon celebration included the premiere showing of Reagan’s new movie, “International Squadron,” at the Dixon Theatre. Myrtle, 62, and Ronald, 30, became fast friends.

In her 1963 autobiography, written before Reagan entered politics, Myrtle recalled, “Ronald had often caddied for Charles when a boy. He had great fun recalling how he came (to Hazelwood) to one of the picnics we gave for the caddies each year, and I brought him his plate of food while he lay in the hammock. That was his idea of being king.”

“All week, Ronald’s forthright candor won everyone,” she added. “We became real friends.”

Not all roses

Don’t conclude that Myrtle’s life was all roses. She had her share of grief. Her first child, Paul, died before he reached his first birthday. Two of her grandchildren developed polio.

In 1929, her third child, Ruth, married a University of Chicago classmate, the athletic and ambitious Justin W. Dart. Hired into the Walgreen company, Dart quickly rose through the ranks. But they had a rocky marriage that troubled Myrtle and sent shock waves through the Walgreen company.

The Dart story

In April 1939, Ruth divorced Justin for “desertion.” Nonetheless, Dart, 32, was made general manager of the huge Walgreens empire when Charles stepped down from leadership in 1939. At one time, Dart also owned some acreage at Hazelwood.

But he was not considered a team player at Walgreens, and the board forced him out only two years later. When forced out, he reportedly slammed his fist on the table and shouted, “This place will go to the dogs without me!’’

Walgreens actually prospered without him. But being “admittedly eager for power” and considered to be “the boy wonder of the drugstore industry,” Dart soon went to lead Rexall, a major drugstore competitor. He eventually moved to California, where he was said to be part of Reagan’s “kitchen cabinet” that convinced him to run for president.

Bringing art to Dixon

After Ruth’s divorce from Dart, she married a fellow artist, John Stephan. “We could see that this marriage was good,” said Myrtle. “John was a real artist, as painstaking and intuitive as Ruth.”

Ruth’s professional connections to the art world benefited Dixon. In 1944, Ruth Walgreen Stephan donated “The Poet,” an Ossip Zadkine sculpture to Dixon High School. About 70 years later, the Zadkine Research Center in Belgium offered to purchase the work. In 2012, the Dixon school board accepted the offer and sold “The Poet” to the center for $70,000.

In 1947, Myrtle Walgreen, acting on behalf of Ruth, presented a statue of Abraham Lincoln to Lincoln School in Dixon. The 4-foot statue, sculpted by Freeman Lorenz Schoolcraft of Chicago, depicts Lincoln as a 7-year-old boy reading a book. After Lincoln School closed in 2014, the statue moved to Jefferson School, where it remains on display.

The Garden Walk at Hazelwood

In 1948, Myrtle helped to start Dixon’s “Garden Walk” at Hazelwood, an annual fundraiser for the Garden Club of Illinois. The event attracted thousands on chartered buses to Dixon, where they toured the Hazelwood gardens and grounds, saw Charles Walgreen’s gun collection, the Lincoln Cabin where Lincoln stayed (which later burned down), and the Cliff House, erected in 1937.

In 1963, before the birth of the Petunia Festival, the Telegraph said, “No other single event brings so many visitors to Dixon.” The 1965 event, for example, attracted 5,000 visitors from 230 Illinois cities, 12 other states, and seven foreign countries.

In 1968, Myrtle hosted her final Garden Walk. Then 89, she became too frail to continue her duties as the gracious and beloved host.

Myrtle Walgreen died at her Chicago apartment on Lake Shore Drive on Aug. 20, 1971, at age 92. The Telegraph described her as “Dixon’s best-known citizen.” Private funeral services were held at Hazelwood, with burial at the Walgreen plot at Oakwood in Dixon.

Hazelwood today

For the last 50 years, the Hazelwood estate has been a relatively quiet place. For several years in the 1980s and 90s, the University of Illinois managed the property. But around 2000, ownership returned to the Walgreen family and specifically to Leslie Ann Walgreen Pratt, the daughter of Chuck Walgreen and granddaughter of Charles and Myrtle.

But Leslie died in 2021 in Colorado, and her son, Charles W. “Casey” Pratt, is now the key contact for the property. I think it’s fair to say that Dixon eagerly awaits the next phase of this historic estate in our midst.

• Dixon native Tom Wadsworth is a writer, speaker and occasional historian. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament.