Dr. Ozell “Billy” Green

For more than 20 years, from 1971 to the early 1990s, folks in the Parramore Neighborhood headed to Green’s Pharmacy at the corner of South Street and Parramore Avenue to have their prescriptions filled and get good, honest medical advice from the owner, Ozell “Billy” Green. Everybody in the community loved him.

A native of Byronville, GA and reared in Orlando, FL, Green worked in high school as a delivery boy for Howard Miller who operated a pharmacy on South Street in the Parramore community. Miller soon became Green’s mentor and encouraged him to pursue a pharmaceutical career.

After graduating from Jones High School, Green earned a degree from Florida A&M University and returned to Orlando to work for Miller as a pharmacist.

After Miller died in 1971, Green opened up his own pharmacy, Green’s Pharmacy, at the corner of South Street and Parramore Avenue. As his daughter DeOnzell Green stated, “it was there where several leaders of the black community would come to talk with my dad about what was going on in the city and what they could do to promote positive change.” Also, when customers came in to have their prescriptions filled, whether they had the money or not, Green would fill their prescription.

After retiring from his pharmacy business in the early 1990s due to medical reasons, Green didn’t take retirement easy. Green worked as a volunteer at Tangelo Park Elementary School, helping children with their math and reading homework.

A year later, he starred in an independent film, Sound of the Fight which was produced in Orlando and focused on racial tension in the boxing world. He was a superstar.

Green was a member of Shiloh Baptist Church and Mount Olive African Methodist Church in Orlando.