The city of Weatherford is home to the oldest running business within its field.
The optometry business, True Vision, was first established in 1899. The city of Weatherford was established in 1898, making the business only one year younger than the city.
“I would challenge anybody to find an older continuous running practice in Oklahoma. I know it’s the oldest one in Weatherford and in western Oklahoma,” Dr. Dwight Shreck, previous owner of True Vision, said.
Dr. Shreck originally bought the business 40 years ago in the fall of 1982. Before him was Dr, Loyd Russell, son of Altus optometrist Elmer Russell, who took over in 1945 after the death of the original owner Dr. Roy Everts.
Dr. Everts began True Vision in the back of one of Weatherford’s oldest running jewelry stores. He sold the jewelry store half of the business to F.L. Kelley, through which the jewelry store then became Kelley’s Jewelry. Since then, Kelley’s has been passed down through three generations of Kelleys.
Dr. Tyson Allard currently is the owner of True Vision. He bought the business in 2018 from Dr. Shreck. The two worked together for a year before Dr. Shreck retired in 2019.
“It’s amazing to hear the history behind the business, and that optometrists have been serving western Oklahoma for a very long time and knowing that our practice within itself has been serving western Oklahomans for a very long time. It’s just a great honor to have all of these doctors before me to serve patients in western Oklahoma. I view it as a great honor to take on the practice and take on the legacy as well,” Dr. Allard said.
The practice of optometry has made many changes over the years through updates in technology and advancements in medicine. Some updates include the ability to create treatment plans on site and the ability to offer eye drops as a solution rather than send patients to the nearest city. Another advancement made in technology is lasers. Through lasers, doctors can now scan the back of the eye in images to check for diseases.
Through these changes, the practice has been able to focus more on the medical side of optometry and on eye health itself.
Previously, many optometry practices in the region, and potentially throughout the country, were based out of the back of jewelry stores.
This is speculated to be because of the machines and tools used.
“What T have always learned is that with the jewelers’ side, they used to have all of the instruments needed to repair a pair glasses and also be able to ground glass. A lot of people would then go to them to have their glasses repaired or to have glass ground to be able to see,” Dr. Allard said.