Oliver McKinney and his wife, Dorothy, decided to make Madison their home following his retirement. Their love for the city has only grown since that time.
By Kristin Finney
Greene Publishing, Inc.
While Oliver McKinney and his wife Dorothy might not be lifelong Madison residents, their love of Madison is just as strong as most people born here. Oliver’s love of Madison stems from his time as a truck driver. “My route used to take me through Madison all the time. We would stop at that big truck stop down by the interstate. It’s burned down now though,” he explained.
After riding through Madison enough times, the McKinney’s made the decision that Madison was where they wanted to move when they retired. And that is exactly what they did. After moving to Madison 22 years ago, Oliver began working at the Co-Op and Dorothy began working at the newspaper.
Oliver recalled that when he first moved to Madison there were a lot of stores here that aren’t here now, and that a lot of stores are here now that weren’t then. He recalled before Burger King was here, there was an old Ford garage. There was no CVS, Freds or Madison County Community Bank. He also recalled that there were a lot of smaller private owned stores along Main Street.
“We used to walk down Main Street and shop at all of these small, private owned stores. But they aren’t here any more. It’s hard for places like that to survive,” he said.
He said also that a lot of stores have grown or changed since 20 years ago also. “Studstill has grown a lot and changed a lot. When we first got here, Winn Dixie was a lot smaller too, before they bought out those other stores.”
Since his retirement, McKinney now spends his free time visiting friends and working around the house. A couple of mornings a week he goes to McDonalds and buys a cup of coffee. Sometimes he buys a cup of coffee and a couple of apple pies for his friend Vince Palhof.
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