PICHER, Okla. (AP) — A businessman who refused to leave the Oklahoma ghost town of Picher has died.
The Thomas Funeral Home confirmed Gary Linderman's death. According to an obituary on its website, he died Saturday at age 60 after a sudden illness.
Linderman ran the Ole Miner Pharmacy, the last business in Picher. He was known as the "last man standing" or "Lights out Linderman."
Customers from miles away visited the pharmacy in the once-booming lead- and zinc-mining town about 20 miles southwest of Joplin, Missouri.
Most residents left after the Environmental Protection Agency declared Picher a federal Superfund site in the 1980s. A 2008 tornado devastated those who remained. The town ceased municipal operations in 2009.
Friend Sherry Mills says Linderman loved to talk about Picher.