White's Variety Store: A Lake Bluff Fixture

Making It Home
White's Variety Store: A Lake Bluff Fixture

November 1965, looking southwest on Scranton Avenue at Lake Bluff Laundromat, White's Variety Store, and the A&P. Photo by Albert G. Ackermann Jr.

Ralph White was a well-respected and beloved Lake Bluff businessman. He was born in 1908 on a cotton farm in Arkansas. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, White operated several Kresge Stores (Kresge’s was later Kmart) before opening his own store in 1954.He eventually owned four White’s Variety Stores; two in Waukegan, one in his hometown of Winthrop Harbor, and one in Lake Bluff on Scranton Avenue. The store was a fixture in Lake Bluff from 1954 to 1982, a five and dime popular with local children looking for penny candy or baseball cards, superballs or school supplies. Adults came for the cookware and extension cords (and also the candy).White and his wife Lyla attended the Union Church of Lake Bluff and played an active role in the community. Ralph White died in 2009 at the age of 101.