Jennifer Biggs

The Commercial Appeal

With family in the liquor business, it was no surprise that Rommy Hammond would eventually follow that path. Buster's opened in 1954, and in 1966, Mr. Hammond followed in his father's footsteps and opened Sterick Liquors in the Sterick Building. Like many Downtown businesses, it closed after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the two Hammonds, father and son, opened a store at Poplar and Highland.

"That was in 1968, and in 1970, the owners of the property sold that corner to Exxon but built Dillard Square, which only had three clients," said Josh Hammond, Rommy's son. "There was the Malco, El Chico and Buster's. We had 1,600 square feet and today the store is 16,000 square feet."

Rommy Hammond died at his home on Tuesday. He was 76.

Jackie Aaron, CEO of Athens Distributing Co. of Tennessee, entered his family's liquor and wine distributing business the same year Mr. Hammond opened Sterick. He remembers the move to the Dillard Square, Buster's current location.

"We had grocery carts and Rommy and I would walk down the aisles, fill them up and take them to the new store," he said. "When we were done, we'd do it again. After about four days, we had everything done."

Josh Hammond remembers a friend of his father telling him that years ago, Mr. Hammond, born Romulus Morgan Hammond III, said he was going to have the largest liquor store in the state.

"And sure enough, he did it," he said.

He built the store to its size — and Aaron agrees that it does more volume and has more product lines than any other store locally and almost certainly statewide — by building his inventory.

"He carried every cordial, every wine, everything that a wholesaler would take to him," Aaron said. "It didn't make any difference to him what it was because he built his reputation on being the place that had everything. That's what he built his business on."

The store's motto remains "If we don't have it, you don't need it," and when state law changed after a long fight to allow groceries to sell wine and liquor stores to sell other items, Mr. Hammond and his sons added gourmet grocery items, a large beer selection and specialty nonfood items.

"He fought it but when it happened, he embraced it and we made the changes to the store," Josh Hammond said.

Mr. Hammond was a man who never met a stranger, an avid reader, tennis player, golfer and civic booster, involved with Playhouse on the Square and a big supporter of the University of Memphis.

"He used to take a box of Buster's T-shirts to basketball games and he'd throw them to the crowd during halftime," Josh Hammond said. "I don't think you could do that today."

Mr. Hammond is survived by his wife, Gay; sons Morgan Hammond and Josh Hammond, all of Memphis; daughter Anastasia Hammond of California; and four grandchildren. Memorial Park Funeral Home has charge; arrangements are pending.