Daniel Hodges, left, and James “Jimbo” Sargent fill prescriptions at Hodges & Sargent Pharmacy, which will celebrate on Wednesday the 30th anniversary of its opening. PHOTO BY DAVID LOWE Daniel Hodges’ and James “Jimbo” Sargent’s 30- year business partnership began with just one sentence, phrased almost as an afterthought.

Sargent — whose father, James C. Sargent, and Cy Terry for a number of years had co-owned a pharmacy at Key Avenue and Second Street — sent his friend a letter, asking him to display a poster that advertised an Independent Cattlemen’s Association sale. At the end of the letter, Sargent wrote simply, “P.S. Want to buy Dad’s old pharmacy?”

Hodges, like Sargent a University of Texas pharmacy graduate, was working in Marble Falls at the time and told Sargent he needed a few weeks to consider the offer, as Hodges and his wife, Dianna, were preparing for a trip to the Rocky Mountains.

Hodges didn’t have to think too long, though, and with help from Alton Marwitz of what was then First National Bank, Hodges & Sargent Pharmacy opened Sept. 1, 1980.

For the first few years, when the store was located at Second and Key near what is now Citibank, Hodges logged many of the hours in the pharmacy. Sargent — who had been part-owner of Medical Arts Pharmacy in Copperas Cove before taking a position at Coryell Memorial Hospital in Gatesville — left his home in Lampasas most mornings at 5:30 to work at the hospital and then returned to Lampasas at the end of the day to help his partner close the pharmacy.

Vicki Ware — who transferred from one pharmacy to another when Hodges and Sargent bought Shifflett Pharmacy 30 years ago — and longtime employee Laurie Henderson have given Hodges & Sargent stability and a firm commitment to customer service, the pharmacy owners said.

“Couldn’t do it without them,” Sargent said.

Hodges, who said he and Sargent have succeeded largely because they focus on their work without taking each other too seriously, added that the staff’s division of administrative work enables the pharmacy to continue serving customers effectively. With many more regulations to follow and more complex billing matters to solve compared to three decades ago, Hodges said a pharmacy needs one or two full-time employees just to handle insurance.

“When I first started, I thought I could — and I pretty much did — do everything myself,” Hodges said, “but now it’s pretty much an impossibility in time and knowledge.”

Through times of change — Sargent’s move in the mid-1980s to full-time work in Lampasas, the opening of the store’s current 210 S. Key location in 1988 and the partners’ decision 12 years ago to move to part-time work — much has stayed the same at Hodges & Sargent Pharmacy. Third-generation customers — and maybe some fourth-generation ones, Hodges said — bring their business, and with total prescriptions filled “now literally in the millions,” Hodges said, the pharmacy still sorts pills manually as it did when it opened 30 years ago.

Loyal customers, devoted employees and a strong working partnership have made Hodges & Sargent Pharmacy strong for three decades, the owners said. Describing himself and Hodges as “very spiritual,” Sargent said the real key to the pharmacy’s success, however, is even simpler than the other strengths of the business.

“We’re just a couple of old boys that God has rewarded,” Sargent said.