Goings on in the independent funeral home world

Sometimes I can get going about a subject and give you my opinion before you have even had a chance to read the article and form an opinion on your own.  Like everybody, my experiences that I have lived slant the opinions that I profess.

And, while I grew up and operated as a 4th generation funeral director in a family firm that is now in its 147th year, I like to think that I am not favored to the historical old firms, but many times I see myself pulling myself that way and enjoying articles about them and their history.

Today I am bringing you a couple of articles that you can read for yourself about historical firms and what is going on with them today.

The first article comes to us from the Milford (CT) Patch and you can read it here.  It tells the story of the Gregory F. Doyle Funeral Home acquiring the business of the Smith Funeral Home, also of Milford.  While the Doyle Funeral Home has a history of its own – going on its 70th year of business itself – it is acquiring the Smith Funeral Home, which has served the Milford community since 1886 – a period of 134 years!

Making the acquisition a little bit unique is that the Doyle Funeral Home is now operated by the 3rd generation of their family — the founder’s granddaughter Moriah Doyle Monsif.

Learning from the Past — Our second article dealing with an old historical funeral home comes to you from ABC channel 5 in Cleveland, Ohio, and pertains to the Billow Company, a provider of funeral and cremation services in Summit and Portage counties of Ohio.  In business since 1875, and now in their 145th year of service, they continue to provide services to their communities.

The news story, which you can see in video and print here, recounts the Billow family and how they, as funeral directors, dealt with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.  The company has meticulous records which make for the comparison with the coronavirus interesting.

More from the world of Death Care:

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