Meta Burrows, 86, Made Pharmacy A Gathering Place -- Druggist Helped Found Overlake Medical Center

When drugstores had soda fountains, free delivery and owners who arose at 2 a.m. to fill a prescription, Meta Ellen Burrows was queen.

Working 12-hour days, she ran Lakeside Drug on Bellevue's Main Street for 44 years, and held an interest in four other pharmacies.

She also provided a neighborhood focal point, especially after she put in a soda fountain. She made her pharmacy a gathering place.

As the industry changed, the down-to-earth Mrs. Burrows adapted. Her secret: stay interested in the customers, and watch every penny.

"One pharmacist who came to work for her said she told him exactly what length of Scotch tape to use sealing packages," said her niece, Jean Weinheimer of Lopez Island. "She'd be economical there, yet give away thousands to charity."

She also gave time: Mrs. Burrows helped found Overlake Medical Center, Bellevue Art Museum and the Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair.

Her heart failed Tuesday, Jan. 2, at age 86.

Growing up on the Eastside, Mrs. Burrows showed an independent spirit, encouraged by her school-principal father.

She spent hours on the Kirkland waterfront, where she owned a farm in middle age, and had swam from Kirkland to Madison Park several times.

She earned a pharmacy degree at the University of Washington in 1934. Unable to find work in the Depression, she had her father underwrite her purchase of a pharmacy in a building where a bank had failed. She kept drugs in the vault.

Mrs. Burrows, whose one brief marriage ended in divorce, did well in business. She merged Lakeside with Thompson Drug in 1978 and retained an interest in her four other pharmacies into her 80s.

She also knew how to play, at vacation homes in Washington and Hawaii.

"She had a large home on San Juan Island and filled it with friends," said her niece. "She wasn't Catholic, but she once let some priests from Gonzaga University stay there to help a neighbor. They came back every summer for the next 20 years."

Another time Mrs. Burrows bought an organ and, although she rarely played, joined Eastside Hammond Organ Society. Its members also came to stay with her.

"I think her biggest interest was people, and carrying on conversations," said her niece. "She knew people wherever she went."

"She'd put this chair in the middle of the room at her island home, then sit and enjoy the action."

Mrs. Burrows' other survivors include another niece, Betty Jacobson Roberson, of Seattle, and nephew Douglas A. Jacobson, of Blaine, Whatcom County. Her son, Michael J. Burrows, died Jan. 2, 1995.

Services were held. Remembrances may go to Overlake Hospital Foundation, 1035 116th Ave. N.E., Suite 26, Bellevue, WA 98004.