Abilene has 10 funeral homes with 11 locations to choose from.
Residents today have more choices of funeral homes and more choices of cemeteries. Additionally, more Abilenians are electing to be cremated.
"Yes, Abilene has more funeral homes per capita than you normally see," said David Girdner, owner of Girdner Funeral Home. "There's no shortage of funeral homes in Abilene, Texas."
Abilene has more smaller funeral homes than other West Texas cities, he said, but the big difference is the range of price.
Third-generation funeral director Robert Hamil, owner of The Hamil Family Funeral Home, said the biggest change in the funeral business locally has been corporate ownership of funeral homes.
"When I was growing up in the funeral home business, there was no such thing as a corporately owned funeral home," Hamil said.
There also were far fewer funeral homes in Abilene.
"When my parents sold out in 1994, Elliott-Hamil, North's, what is now Community Memorial (then Allen-Korzenewski) and Curtis-Starks were the only funeral homes in Abilene," he said.
Hamil said the reason there are so many funeral homes in Abilene is that many people, himself included, saw an opportunity to compete against corporately owned funeral homes by offering the personal touch of local ownership.
"Me personally, I like to do business with people I know," Hamil said. "There are certainly many people who want to deal with the owner of the business, including funeral homes. ... If you call at 2 o'clock in the morning, you're not going to get the answering service, you're going to get the owner."
The Hamil Family Funeral Home opened in 2005, carrying on a tradition started by Hamil's grandparents, Pete and Mittie Elliott, who founded Elliott's Funeral Home in 1933. Their daughter, Jo Ann joined the business and married John Hamil, also a funeral director, in 1958. In 1973, the name of the funeral home was changed to Elliott-Hamil and in 1986, Robert Hamil joined as a funeral director. He stayed with Elliott-Hamil until starting his own funeral home.
"Our situation is that I try to do things the way I was taught by my parents years ago," Hamil said, by adding a personal touch and attending to people's needs.
'Community ties'
Corporate ownership doesn't affect the personal treatment people receive at a funeral home, said Chris Baldree, location manager for Elliott-Hamil's two locations and Community Memorial Funeral Home. Elliott-Hamil and Community Memorial are owned by Service Corporation International and operated through its Dignity Memorial brand of more than 1,600 funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers. Service Corporation also owns Kiker-Seale Funeral Home in Colorado City and Davis-Morris Funeral Home in Brownwood, according to its website.
"It (corporate ownership) doesn't matter," Baldree said. "I was born and raised here. All the directors are from Abilene. We have community ties so we're local and we run it that way."
Abilene's other corporately owned funeral home is Elmwood Funeral Home and Memorial Park, part of the Houston-based Legacy company.
Joe Thompson, general manager at Elmwood, said ownership is not a factor in choosing a funeral home or cemetery.
People choose based on experiences they have had in the past, he said. If they or their parents or friends were treated properly, they'll choose that funeral home again, Thompson said.
personal service
Jack North, owner of North's Funeral Home, Abilene's oldest funeral home, said people decide on a funeral home based on past services they've attended, recommendations of family and friends, and the reputation of the funeral home.
"Very few families open the phone book and pick a funeral home," he said.
His funeral home dates back to 1905, when it was spun off from a furniture store business and became Laughter Undertaking Co. North's parents, Russell and Willena North, succeeded the original owner, Dan Laughter, in 1945. Jack North was licensed as a mortician in 1966.
"We're a mom and pop organization," North said. "We provide personal, dignified service, trying to help the family the best we can."
Personal service is the key mentioned by all funeral directors.
"Everyone is trying to carve out their own little niche," said Randy Piersall, owner of Piersall-Benton Funeral Directors, in operation for four years in Abilene. "We try to focus on taking the best care we can of the people who call on us."
It's a competitive market, said Elliot Kirk, owner of Dove Funeral Home, one of the newest funeral homes in town, opening in December 2008.
The Kirk family also owns Baker-Kirk Funeral Home in Coleman and Brownwood Funeral Home. Kirk said the funeral home in Coleman was getting calls to do funerals in Abilene so a decision was made to open a funeral home here. It was originally called Heavenly Care Funeral Home, but the name later was changed to Dove.
Cost an issue
The economy has affected the funeral home business, with more people seeking lower priced funerals such as those offered at his mortuary, said Girdner, who has operated funeral homes in Abilene since 1998.
"We like to think we give the very best services at the very best prices," Girdner said.
Within the past few months, Girdner said, he has done funerals in Colorado City, Ranger and Breckenridge for people wanting to save money.
The newest funeral home in town, Adams & Starks, which opened in 2009, has taken a different approach to keep its costs low. The funeral home at Mesquite and North 12th streets is open by appointment only, said owner Dr. Fredd Adams, who also operates Adams & Starks Funeral Home in San Angelo.
When the business is handling a funeral, it is fully staffed for viewing, the service and whatever else is necessary, Adams said, but when there is no business, the facility doesn't have to be staffed five or six days a week. Another advantage of making an appointment, he said, is that it doesn't have to be at the funeral home, where some people don't feel comfortable.
Funeral home directors generally agree that there is a slight increase in cremations in the Abilene area. Among the reasons is to save money.
Cremations common
Nationally, about 2 percent of bodies were cremated 20 years ago, North said, compared with about 20 percent today. As more people from elsewhere in the country move into the Abilene area, cremations have become more common here, he added.
People can have a traditional funeral service, Kirk said, with the body being cremated after the service instead of being buried.
Girdner said he is seeing more funerals at which the body is embalmed, a casket is rented for viewing and the service, and then the body is cremated afterward, saving cemetery costs.
Thompson at Elmwood Funeral Home said that although Abilene has had a few more cremations, West Texas remains very traditional when it comes to funerals.
"Cremations make up a much larger part of the funeral services on the West Coast," he said. "Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico are having large increases in the percentage of cremations."
Brad Smith of the Smith Family Funeral Homes, which operates in five towns north of Abilene, said cremations seem to be rising in rural areas, but added, "In Texas, there's more ceremony to funerals and people are slower to adapt to cremation."
Smith Family Funeral Homes started in Knox City and at the beginning of the year purchased funeral homes in Haskell, Throckmorton, Rule and Rochester.
celebrations of life
Baldree at Elliott-Hamil said funeral services are becoming more of a celebration of life, complete with slide shows, balloon releases or dove releases. Funerals can be personalized however families want them to be, he said.
Another option for many families in the area is the opportunity to be buried in the Texas State Veterans Cemetery at Abilene. Veterans and their spouses are eligible for burial in the state cemetery which opened in 2009.
The cemetery is "a great thing for our veterans," Baldree said.
Baldree and Thompson said they haven't seen a drop in burials at their respective cemeteries as a result of the veterans cemetery opening.
The veterans cemetery draws people from a large geographic area, Thompson said.
Many people already have purchased plots in Elmwood or other cemeteries, Thompson said, so even though they might be eligible for the veterans cemetery, they choose to be buried where they had previously planned.
Smith agreed, saying that in smaller towns many people have already made plans to be buried in the local cemetery next to their spouses and families.
Girdner said another trend he has seen because of the economy is that people are being buried in rural cemeteries instead of a private cemetery or Cedar Hill, the city of Abilene cemetery.
Many people in Abilene came from area towns, and since the city raised cemetery fees in 2009, they are opting to be buried in their hometowns, where it is less expensive, Girdner said.
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