Al Bryant (1999)

Born in Schenectady in 1908, Al Bryant spent his younger years in Athens. He worked at a variety of stores in Hudson, Albany and Oneonta before moving to South Westerlo in 1941 to partner with Ezra Winn. He soon became the sole owner and ran the store until 1961 when he moved into the new 4800 square-foot store he had built on Route 32 in Greenville. The store was expanded in 1968, again in the mid-1970s, and once again in the 1980s to its current size of over 50,000 square feet. The creation of Bryant’s Country Square and its variety of stores, and the accompanying employment of dozens of community members, made Bryant’s one of the major shaping forces of Greenville in the 1970s and 1980s. Al married Pearl Winn Bailey and had one son Alexander (Zan). Al Bryant passed in 1994.