On August 1, 1971, my parents began publishing a weekly shopper newspaper in Athens, Texas.  Athens is “The Black Eyed Pea Capital of the World” and at the time home of “The Black Eyed Pea Jamboree” . They decided we would be “The Pea Picker”.

A few years later my uncle, Otto B. Mullinax suggested that a used bookstore might go well with their newspaper. Uncle Otto had a friend in Dallas, Texas named Ken who had just opened a used bookstore in what used to be an old laundromat on Lemmon Ave.

On February 14, 1975, the late Dan A. Johnson and his wife, the late Johnnie M. Johnson and family opened the first Pea Picker Bookstore in Athens, Texas. They bought a load of books and an afternoon of instruction from Ken Gjemre, who along with Pat Anderson co-founded “Half Price Books” in Dallas, Texas in 1972.

Within a year they opened a second store in Corsicana, Texas.

In the summer of 1978 the Corsicana store was closed and moved to the Hillside Shopping Center on East Erwin St. in Tyler, Texas where it remained until 1990. A devastating flood in April of 1986 forced us to seek higher ground. The current store at 2803 University Blvd., Tyler, Texas opened on June 2, 1986 and is still in operation. The Athens store closed and merged with the Tyler store in April 2012.

During the early 80’s we had a store in Beaumont, Texas and my sister had one in Winnsboro, Texas.

The Pea Picker Bookstore celebrates 46 years in operation on February 14, 2021.

 Thanks to all our great customers, and their children, and their grand children!