Jerry Prater graduated from University of Oklahoma School of Pharmacy in 1977. After working several years for a small chain pharmacy in Oklahoma City, he decided to return to his home in the Seneca, MO area. At the age of 27, and with barely enough money for a down payment, Jerry and his wife, Pam, opened Prater’s Pharmacy on January 2, 1980, in Seneca, MO, at 1206 Cherokee. Business was good and necessitated a move to a slightly larger building next door at 1208 Cherokee in 1982.
Within a few years, the business of V&V Drug at 1114 Cherokee Avenue came up for sale, and was purchased by the Praters in August of 1984. Unfortunately, the business suffered the greatest personal loss of Jerry Prater on April 11, 1987. In an effort to continue the legacy her husband had begun, Pam vowed to keep the business open.
A fire at the building next door forced the business to move to a new building located at 1107 Cherokee Avenue in September, 1989. The pharmacy remained at that location until March, 1998, when their present building was completed. Truman Brady, then owner of Brady’s Price Saver, offered the vacant lot for sale. It had been Pam’s dream to purchase the property and include a drive-thru in a new building’s construction.
In May, 2010, Koby Prater joined the Prater’s Pharmacy team. Koby is the youngest child of Jerry and Pam Prater, and was born in 1986. It had been his goal since the age of 12 to be the pharmacist in his family’s pharmacy. He graduated from Seneca High School in 2004. Koby first attended Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond, Oklahoma, for one year, and then was accepted to University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Pharmacy where he graduated in May, 2010, and received a Doctorate of Pharmacy degree.
