Rural Retreat, Virginia - Grave of Doctor Pepper

I have been told that the druggist in the town of Rural Retreat, VA was in love with the local doctor's daughter. The Doc did not care much for the young man and he was not allowed to see the young woman. Dejected, so the story goes, he moved to Texas and developed a carbonated drink he named Dr. Pepper for his lost love's father. I have been shown a grave that the locals said was the grave of the doctor in question. Have you any idea if this story has any validity? [Richard Jordan, 07/16/2004]

[RA: The grave of a pharmacist, Dr. Charles Taylor Pepper, is in the town cemetery, and he was the inspiration for the soft drink's name. Charles Alderton invented and patented the Dr Pepper carbonated drink formula in Waco, Texas. The owner of the Waco pharmacy, Wade Morrison, who once lived in Rural Retreat, named the beverage after the man who gave him his first job, Dr. Pepper. No Dr. Pepper daughter lust involved, as far as the official story goes....]