Our History

Richard L. “Dick” Hartley (1926 – 2006) was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri. After his high school graduation in 1944, Dick joined the U.S. Army for the conclusion of the WWII. After the war, Dick was stationed at General Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. Upon receiving his honorable discharge from the Army, Dick returned to Springfield and subsequently graduated from Drury University with a degree in economics. Due to limited opportunities for employment in southwest Missouri, Dick made the difficult decision to leave family and friends and moved to Chicago in 1950 to work for the S.S. Kresge Company. While renting a room at a nearby YMCA, Dick learned the five and dime business from the ground up. In 1956 Dick accepted a management position with T G & Y Variety stores and moved to Midwest City, Oklahoma. Shortly thereafter, Dick met June Spickard, also a Springfield native and the two were married in 1959. After being transferred to Norman, Oklahoma, Dick developed a desire to own his own five and dime. Dick and June agreed together that they wanted to take on this challenge. The next big decision, ultimately one of the biggest decisions of their lives, was where to locate their new business.

There was talk of Abilene, Kansas, because of an available building with a favorable lease opportunity. There was also talk of the communities surrounding their hometown of Springfield, Missouri. Ultimately, there was something about Branson, Missouri, that just felt right to Dick and June. Dick believed Branson had the most upside potential of the communities they had considered and the decision was made.

Many lean years followed as Dick built his business. Some in the retail community didn’t believe a Branson five and dime could be successful as recounted in a local newspaper article some years later. As the sole employee for several years, Dick did it all, even constructing many of his own counters for displaying merchandise. He refused to be outworked by the competition. When one of his retail competitors faltered in the early 1970’s, Dick was able to acquire their location on Main Street where the store exists today. It was also about that time that Dick began adding collections to his store in an effort to further differentiate Dick’s 5 & 10 from the Branson retail competition. Dick was always looking for an opportunity to learn something new that he could apply in his business.

On December 9th, 2006, Dick closed the store at 9:00 p.m. one last time and peacefully passed away later that evening at the age of 80. Dick’s Oldtime 5 & 10 remains family owned and operated with June still active in the business along with her son Steve Hartley who rejoined the family business in 1993 and son-in-law Dave Montgomery who joined the business in 2008.