Villa Park pharmacist's life revolved around business

For nearly 20 years, the soda fountain at the Ardmore Pharmacy in Villa Park was the place to go.

With its 18 stools, the counter extended across one side of the store and everyone, from mothers with their youngsters to schoolchildren and teenagers, clamored to get a seat for a Green River or Coke.

The Belli family took over the pharmacy in 1956. Julius Belli was the pharmacist. His son, William, helped him at the pharmacy counter, while his wife, Vera, ran the soda fountain with her daughter, Lillian.

William Belli served in the Navy during the Korean War. When he returned, he pursued his pharmacist degree. Upon his graduation in 1963 from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, Mr. Belli joined his father, in running the family business.

Mr. Belli died Tuesday. The former Wheaton resident, who had lived in Villa Park for the last 25 years, was 70.

"It was a wonderful place to grow up, especially when they had the soda fountain," said Mr. Belli's sister, Lillian Capouch of Temperance, Mich.

With its location at Central and Ardmore avenues across from a dance studio and near St. Alexander's church and school, it drew a steady stream of customers.

"Sundays were always busy, right after church when people came in to buy their newspapers," Capouch added.

Business at the pharmacy grew right along with the village of Villa Park, which experienced its peak growth during the early 1960s. Its population reached 25,000 in 1965, village records indicate.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Belli updated the store in partnership with William Scavone Jr. and took out the soda fountain, filling the space with more retail items, including a cosmetic counter, which Vera Belli ran.

Mr. Belli, however, still found great satisfaction in serving neighboring residents as their local pharmacist. The remodeled drug store grew to serve patients visiting the doctors' offices in the Villa Medical Arts building, located next door.

In 2000, the two partners made the decision to close the shop, leading to Mr. Belli working as a pharmacist at the former Vallette Drugs in Elmhurst before he retired.

"He never married," Capouch added. "The store was his whole life."

Funeral services will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday at Steuerle Funeral Home, 350 S. Ardmore Ave. in Villa Park.