For 56 years, there has been at least one Bettman's Pharmacy in Dayton.

On Tuesday, that streak will end as Joe Bettman closes his Catalpa Drive doors for the final time. He has sold the store's database and remaining inventory to Walgreens. The store itself will be sold to someone else.

"It was time," said Bettman, who recently turned 83.

It was time for several reasons, Bettman said. Insurance companies, for example, reimbursed at a lower level as operating costs rose. Bettman and his wife, Elaine, decided to look at alternatives.

He called a broker a few months ago, and in short order, Walgreens called and struck a deal.

Only a few years ago, "I could hardly wait to get to the store," Bettman said."There was a great deal of satisfaction," he said. "I was helping people, and I was making a dollar."

His first store was on Cincinnati Street, near Welcome Stadium, before Interstate 75 was built and took the land. He moved to Miracle Lane off Salem Avenue, where the store remained for about 40 years until the shopping center was torn down. He has been on Catalpa nearly 12 years, staying in the inner city even though he once - about 30 years ago - owned a sister store on Far Hills at Dorothy Lane.

When he pared back to one store, he kept the one in Dayton, where he had come to admire his customers, and they him.

"A woman came in this morning," Elaine Bettman said. "She has been with us since the Cincinnati Street days. When she heard we were retiring, she cried."

The Bettmans cried, too.

"There's a loyalty issue," Joe Bettman said. "We've had thousands of customers and they've been wonderful. We've had a delivery service from day one, but we don't deliver by bicycle anymore."

Walgreens will honor Bettman prescriptions. Prescriptions will also be passed on to other pharmacies if customers wish. Walgreens is trying to relocate as many of the 20 Bettmans employees as possible.

The Bettmans, originally from Cincinnati and deep into philanthropy, will do more of that, travel and relax. They have five grown children, two foster children and 12 grandchildren.