Wilmer Frank “Doc” Posey

Germantown High School Retirement Night
Germantown/Bartlett Football Game
October 18, 1991

W. Frank “Doc” Posey was born on October 23, 1915, in Munford, Tennessee. He began school in Munford but transferred to the Memphis City School system in the second grade. Doc graduated from Memphis Technical High School in 1933.  He played football (tackle) for 2 years (1933-1934) at West Tennessee State Teacher’s College (University of Memphis), and then transferred to the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy where he earned a B.S. in Pharmacy.

Doc married Margaret Fleming of Atoka in 1938.  She taught for 35 years at Germantown Elementary and held a B.S. in Education from Arkansas State University.  They had one daughter, Ruth Ellen Cox, who taught at Elmore Park Elementary.  They had a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter.

Frank joined the U.S. Navy in 1943 and served with the amphibious forces in the Atlantic and Pacific.   His rank at discharge in 1945 was Pharmacist’s Mate First Class.

In 1946, Doc moved his family to Germantown and opened Posey’s Drug Store.  Posey’s was located on the northeast corner of Poplar and Germantown Road in the row of stores known as “The Corner”.  He began a working relationship with M.C. Williams School, beginning a practice of hiring students, which continued as long as Posey’s Drug Store existed into the late 70s.  His drugstore, complete with a soda fountain and jukebox, was a place where kids would hang out and businessmen would banter.  “’Much business was cussed and discussed there”, said his daughter Ruth Ellen.

When Germantown organized its first Junior High football team., Doc became the assistant coach for the linemen, coaching with Billy Lanier.  He later coached girls’ basketball, managed the women’s basketball team, and sponsored girls’ softball.

Doc started the drive to put lights on GHS’s football field, selling program ads and editing football programs to raise funds.  He received the first sound system (donated by WMC radio) and began announcing the games. With a microphone in hand and an old portable PA system mounted on top of his car, he roamed the sidelines at football games.  From 1948 until his retirement in 1991, he was Germantown’s public address football announcer. His rich baritone voice noted the movement of generations of Red Devil players.

He organized the first booster club and participated in school and community fundraising events such as carnivals, womanless weddings, and minstrel shows.  Doc co-sponsored Germantown’s first Christmas parade and fireworks show and played a leading part in the purchase of C.O. Franklin Park.  Doc served as director and president of the Germantown Charity Horse Show (1956).

He was a member of the Shelby County Board of Education from 1961 and 1977 and was chairman for seven years.  He served as a member of the governing board for Tennessee’s expansion of vocations education as well as the Vocations Education Advisory Council, since its establishment.  In addition, he was director and president of the Tennessee School Board Association and vice-president of Hubert Humphrey’s program for handicapped children.

He was also a member and elder of Germantown Presbyterian Church.  Margaret passed on October 25, 1994, and Frank ‘Doc’ Posey passed on April 10, 2000.

W. Frank ‘Doc’ Posey and Hugh Ford at Posey’s Drug Store