New York native Philip Cooke Heiden (1907-1973) was one of two sons of Polish immigrants Max Heiden (b. 1876) and Minnie Padget (1880-1957), merchants who split their time between New York and South Carolina. He attended Brooklyn College of Pharmacy and married Helen Werner (1912-2007) before returning to South Carolina in the mid-1930s. He opened Heiden’s Drug Store in Lake City, where his older brother, Jay Julius Heiden, had opened a clothing store, Heiden’s. The drug store remained open until at least 1968.