At 11 yr of age, Roy Clinton McKennan (1880 to 1958) moved with his Hoosier parents from his native Illinois back to their Connersville home in east central Indiana. Roy spent his college years 130 miles to the northwest at Purdue University, where he earned his graduate pharmacy degree, his Ph.G., in 1900. He returned home to Connersville to partner with his pharmacist father in the firm of S.O. McKennan & Son. In 1905 young McKennan had prospered well enough to marry his high school sweetheart. By 1912 he had compounded his “Maxine” local anesthetic, his proprietary brand for dental extractions and “All Other Minor Surgical Operations.” He advertised his original Maxine as comprised of 1.1% cocaine and his Maxine Special as 2% procaine (Novocain) compounded with “Adrenaline 1:30000, Phenol 1:500, and Glycerin” (right). Derived from Latin via French, “Maxine” means “greatest,” perhaps an appropriate branding for what McKennan advertised as the “ideal local anesthetic.” On the other hand, “Maxine” may have been named after or by his wife, Madge M. Kensler McKennan. So, regarding Maxine local anesthetic, was Roy McKennan’s branding utilitarian…or uxorial? (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)