Lantern Bookstore was the brainchild of Jerry Jordan.  After returning from service with the United States Army and the Vietnam War in 1969, Jerry saw a need in the area for Christian literature and church supplies.  However, it wasn’t until 1974 that Jerry and his wife, Brenda, realized that vision and opened up the Lantern Bookstore.  Although from Marmaduke, but members of Paragould’s East Side Baptist Church, the young couple chose to open their new business in Paragould in Plaza Park (where the Health Food Store in now located) next to Paragould Cablevision.

Jerry and Brenda were high school sweethearts.  They married in 1966, but were soon pulled apart by the growing tensions in Southeast Asia.  When Jerry returned from the war, he went to work at Emerson and continued to work there despite owning and operating the Lantern Bookstore. 

Despite the fact that Jerry worked a full-time job in the factory, and Brenda worked as a homemaker raising their two young daughters, Wendy and Becky, they managed to successfully run the Lantern Bookstore.  To say it was a struggle at first would be a dramatic understatement, but like most journeys of those called by God, the Lord blessed their efforts and has used the Lantern Bookstore to bring his Word to the people of Paragould and the surrounding communities now for over 30 years. 

In 1981, the Lantern Bookstore expanded and doubled in size by taking over the units left vacant by Paragould Cablevision.  And then in 2004, they moved to their present location in the Paragould Plaza, right begin the Super D Pharmacy.