Rural Retreat, Virginia -
Grave of Doctor Pepper

I visited the grave of Dr. Pepper. There are several Pepper markers, which makes one think of the theme song "He's a Pepper, she's a Pepper, wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?"

Turn into the entrance closest to flagpole. After about 70 feet, the road turns sharply left. Another 70 feet later, the marker will be on your left, about 10 or 15 feet off the road. Another Pepper marker is right beside the road. [Mark Turner, 11/12/2011]

We didn't know where the grave was in the cemetery and it took some time to search. If you start at the flag and go around the u-shaped drive you'll see it on your left. Near the big "Pepper" headstone is a four-sided column. The Dr. Charles T. Pepper marker is on that column. [Carrie R., 07/31/2008]

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....]