Caswell County Funeral Home History
List of Known Caswell County Funeral Homes
1. Blackwell Funeral Home (Yanceyville)
2. Brooks Funeral Home (Semora)*
3. Harrelson Funeral Home and Predecessors**
(a) Brooks, White & Long Funeral Home
(b) Brooks, White & Pulliam Funeral Home
(c) Caswell Funeral Home
(d) Hooper Funeral Home
(e) Harrelson Funeral Home
(f) Blackwell Funeral Home
4. Fulton Funeral Home/Fulton-Walton Funeral Home & Cremation Services, LLC (Yanceyville)***
5. Marley Funeral Home/Wrenn-Yeatts Funeral Home (Yanceyville)
6. Swicegood Funeral Home (Yanceyville)****
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* In the late 1920s, George D. Brooks of Person County moved to Semora in adjoining Caswell County and started a country store and funeral home.
** These funeral homes under various owners occupied the same building in Yanceyville, Caswell County, NC. Owners:
Owners:
(a) Unknown Long (in association with Brooks & White of Roxboro)(1940s)
(b) Montine and Shirley Brooks Pulliam (in association with Brooks & White of Roxboro)(1950s)
(c) William Edmond (Bill) Watlington (mid/late-1950s)
(d) Stephen Edward Shelton (assisted by Jack Satterfield) (1960s)
(e) Elbert Webster Smith (1960s-1970s)
(f) Roy Slate Hooper (1970s-1990s)
(g) Joe Harrelson(1993-2017)
(h) Jeremiah Randall (JR) Whitt (2017-2021)
(j) Faiger Blackwell (2022- )
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Roy Slate Hooper, who purchased the funeral home business from Elbert Webster Smith, for a while continued the "Caswell Funeral Home" name, but later changed it to "Hooper Funeral Home" (as early as 1975).
*** Established in 1956 by John Wesley Fulton, who in 2019 sold the business to Quenton Walton.
**** Operated in Yanceyville as early as 1930, probably first from the Swicegood house just off the Square in Yanceyville and later from a building beside the Red & White supermarket.
At one time both Fulton Funeral Home and Hooper Funeral Home provided ambulance service to Caswell County. However, by 1975 Hooper Funeral Home had an exclusive contract with Caswell County for $5,000 per month. The Caswell County Rescue Squad had competed for the contract but lost. It apparently had been in operation since 1963, but was an all-volunteer organization.
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Harrelson Funeral Home
The business in Yanceyville that operates (well, operated) under the name Harrelson Funeral Home has had several names. It appears the current owner, Jeremiah Randall (JR) Whitt, is facing criminal charges:
1. Brooks, White & Long Funeral Home
2. Brooks, White & Pulliam Funeral Home
3. Caswell Funeral Home
4. Hooper Funeral Home
5. Harrelson Funeral Home
These funeral homes under various owners occupied the same building in Yanceyville, Caswell County, NC. -- even demolishing the historic Abisha Slade house to make room for a parking lot.
Owners:
Owners:
(a) Unknown Long (in association with Brooks & White of Roxboro)(1940s)
(b) Montine and Shirley Brooks Pulliam (in association with Brooks & White of Roxboro)(1950s)
(c) William Edmond (Bill) Watlington (mid/late-1950s)
(d) Stephen Edward Shelton (assisted by Jack Satterfield) (1960s)
(e) Elbert Webster Smith (1960s-1970s)
(f) Roy Slate Hooper (1970s-1990s)
(g) Joe Harrelson(1993-2017)
(h) Jeremiah Randall (JR) Whitt (2017-2021)
(j) Faiger Blackwell (2022- )
Photograph courtesy The Caswell Messenger (Yanceyville, North Carolina): North Carolina Department of Insurance Special Agents searching Harrelson Funeral Home May 27, 2021.
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Salisbury National Cemetery
Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina
Hooper, Roy Slate, b. 03/26/1932, d. 11/15/1991, A3C USAF, Plot: I 627, bur. 11/18/1991
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 03 April 2021), memorial page for Roy Slate Hooper (26 Mar 1932–15 Nov 1991), Find a Grave Memorial no. 3264320, citing Salisbury National Cemetery, Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina, USA ; Maintained by US Veterans Affairs Office (contributor 5).
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Board Issues Licenses
Forty-seven persons have been granted licenses as funeral directors in North Carolina as the result of passing examinations conducted by the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors. Twenty-one qualified as embalmers by taking the tests.
Applicants passing the funeral directors' examination were: Roy Slate Hooper, Murphy
Applicants passing the embalmer's examination were: Roy Slate Hooper, Murphy
Source: The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), 8 January 1963, Tuesday, Page 17
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In the early 1960s the funeral home that became Harrelson Funeral Home may have been called Yanceyville Funeral Home. See: The Bee (Danville, VA), 24 October 1961, Tuesday, Page 3.
Roy Slate Hooper died 15 November 1991. However, Joe William Harrelson did not purchase Hooper Funeral Home until 1993.During this gap the funeral home was operated by William Don Marley (1944-2015), who later established Marley Funeral Home in the former Samuel Murphey Bason home on Main Street in Yanceyville.
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Plenty Funeral Home has a Semora address (174 Barker Road, Semora, North Carolina) but apparently is in Person County.
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Of course families living on the "edges" of Caswell County often used funeral homes in Burlington, Danville, Reidsville, and Roxboro.
Burlington
Alamance Funeral Home
Blackwell Funeral Home
Lowe Funeral Home
Rich & Thompson Funeral Home
Sharpe Funeral Home
DanvilleSwicegood Funeral Home
Townes Funeral Home
Wrenn-Yeatts Funeral Home
Reidsville
Citty Funeral Home
Johnson & Sons Funeral Home
McLaurin Funeral Home
Wilkerson Funeral Home
Roxboro
Brooks & White Funeral Home
Strickland Funeral Home
Woody Funeral Home
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It has been a year now that Quenton Walton has taken ownership of Fulton Funeral Home which was started by John Wesley Fulton 66 years ago. He served the Caswell, Rockingham, Person and Alamance county communities for 65 years, always keeping his philosophy of “Service for All – Within Means of All” close to his heart.
Now, the funeral home is named Fulton-Walton Funeral Home & Cremation Services, LLC continuing Fulton’s philosophy along with the communities he served.
There have been many changes and upgrades as Walton looks for progressive ways to enhance services provided to his clients who entrust Fulton-Walton Funeral Home & Cremation Services with the final arrangements of their loved ones. The building has been totally renovated with new vehicles and computerized files. Live stream is offered as well as DVD slideshows, Memory Blankets, and a Dove release.
Last year when Fulton decided to retire, Walton was the natural choice to carry on his work. As his 25-year assistant, Walton shared at the time, “I learned how to treat everybody the same and everybody right. Not everybody has the means to do a lot of things and we still work with all the families, do the right thing and right by them. I also learned how to do everything exactly right because that’s what Mrs. Juanita S. Fulton always stressed. Doing things right.”
Walton added, “As far as embalming, he’s (Fulton) one of the best, and he’s shown me how to do it where I can make people look more natural, which is important because it helps put the family at ease. They look like they’re asleep and at rest and that makes the family feel good, which makes us as a team feel better.”
One of the ways Walton is making the business cutting edge is adding Elizabeth Rosario as a Spanish language interpreter to make clients more comfortable getting their arrangements and service taken care of in their native tongue.
Rosario, who is co-owner of Ely Har Farm, grew up in New York where her father had his children speaking and writing in Spanish even though they were here in America. Later when they moved to Puerto Rico, the kids reversed the process and wrote and spoke in English at home even though they were in a Spanish speaking culture. “It was the right thing to do because it made us bi-lingual which proved to be a great asset out in the world. I’ve been able to increase my income through the years because I could speak Spanish and serve as an interpreter for businesses. I also got to travel over much of the world with my business associates.”
As an interpreter, she stresses that it’s not just a matter of knowing how to speak Spanish. “I translate exactly what is said by Quenton or the client. I don’t put my feelings or thoughts into the translation. It should be strictly literal as a professional interpreter.”
She gives the example of similar words being used in different cases. “The Spanish language in the Caribbean is different in some ways than the language in Mexico or South America. It’s possible to insult someone by not addressing them properly. For example, if you’re saying the word ‘you’ to a young person in a casual manner, you would use the Spanish word ‘tu.’ If you were speaking to an older person it may be more appropriate to use the word ‘usted’ rather than tu so you won’t offend them.”
Just as Juanita S. Fulton was a wonderful partner to her husband, Janette Harris-Walton is a tremendous asset to her husband and the business. She is a graduate of Bartlett Yancey Senior High School as well as having graduated college from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Technology (Technical Sales and Services). She is also a licensed Life, Health, and Annuity’s Insurance Broker (Insurance Agent) whose mission is to help people in the various stages of their lives. Over time, she has acquired a broad array of experience to leverage her career and entrepreneurship as a global Technical Writer for regulated companies; where she writes effective document control procedures and developing employee training solutions set forth by the governing body that conforms to the compliance of quality assurance standards and/or of documentation style guidelines. This led to her vision of starting her own business called “Live 4 Life Matters, LLC,” which is a consulting company that intelligently embraces a client’s obstacles and turns those challenges into workable resolutions. Her business has also allowed her to assist the Funeral Home by: writing death notices, death announcements to execute for newspapers and/or radio announcement deadlines and gathering and coordinating information in order to write obituaries/programs for the families loved ones designated day of service, she explains.
She is the daughter of Eddie Joe & Virginia Sue Lea Harris (deceased). She started at Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC) during the summer of 2019 in the Funeral Studies Education program. In December 2020, she will graduate as a Funeral Director with plans to pursue her Embalming licensing afterwards. Since her studies at FTCC, she has been an honor student which led to her being elected to join and meet the requirements of the Fayetteville Technical Community College chapter as an executive leadership member of the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS); “Building leaders who make a better world.” She enjoys working along with her husband assisting families during their time of need, also while completing her apprenticeship (NCBFS requirements) at Fulton-Walton Funeral Home.
She is a member of Freedom Temple Cathedral of Grace in Raleigh, North Carolina under the leadership of Bishop Gerald Sylver.
Fulton’s late wife, Juanita, helped him run the business for over half-a-decade.
“She was mostly public relations, which I’ve never been that good at,” Fulton said last year, laughing. “She was a schoolteacher and could speak well and had a great voice. At that time, you didn’t print the obituary so she would read it during the service and was really good at reading and carrying on with people. She did everything except embalm the body.”
Walton chose to honor Mrs. Fulton by naming the renovated chapel after her.
“I have pretty much renovated most of the home. We want it as comfortable and attractive as possible to make the families feel at ease,” he says.
Although there have been many changes, one thing that hasn’t changed is the philosophy continued by the Waltons of providing ways of helping people who are financially challenged.
“When I came here and after dealing with people, I found out they didn’t have much in the ways of means so that’s how the philosophy came about,” Fulton said last year. “We wanted to still give them some service, though. A lot of them were sharecroppers at the time and not everybody had money coming in at all times of the year. So, we allowed them to do the best they could with what they had.”
Walton worked alongside Fulton as a funeral director and embalmer for 25 years. Walton possesses licenses to embalm in North Carolina and Virginia, and according to Walton, “has the same passion for his work in servicing families and their loved ones,” as Fulton.
Quenton is the son of Carlton and Annie Adams Walton. He is a native of Cascade Virginia and grew up around the funeral home industry in the Martinsville area. “My cousin, Ben Pritchett, owned a funeral home in Martinsville in the 1980s called Pritchett Funeral Home. He was an excellent embalmer and I was very impressed with the way he served the people with excellence. My dad worked with several funeral homes in that area; Hairston Funeral Home was one of them,” Walton shares.
“The late Mr. Reginald Hairston and Mrs. Mobile Hairston were very inspirational. Mrs. Mobile was head of the Mortuary Science Dept. at John Tyler. At Chatham Funeral Service in Chatham, Virginia, now Howerton Funeral Home, I worked under Mrs. Lola Howerton, who was a great embalmer and teacher in 1989-1990, before joining the staff at Fulton Funeral Home.”
He adds, “My parents, Carlton and Annie, are a great inspiration to me and I am grateful for their financial support to the business.”
Walton graduated from John Tyler College with a Mortuary Science Degree.
He came to Yanceyville in June of 1991 to serve his Funeral Director and embalming apprenticeship under John W. Fulton. “He is a great embalmer and Funeral director. Mrs. Fulton was a great teacher and a great inspiration to me.”
Walton also has a Virginia Funeral Director and embalming license as well as a Pre-Need insurance license; he is a Notary Public.
He is a member of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Cascade Virginia under the leadership of Pastor Fredrick Dion Noel.
The funeral home is located at 219 Dillard School Drive in Yanceyville. They can be reached at 336-694-4881.
Source: The Caswell Messenger (Yanceyville, NC), 27 August 2020.
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Blackwell Funeral Home
December 11 [2022] will be an important day for Blackwell Funeral Home and Crematory of Yanceyville as it holds a grand opening celebration at its new home at 143 Third Avenue in the former Harrelson Funeral Services facility. On Sunday, December 11, 2 – 5 p.m., a grand opening will be held with everyone invited. Guests will be able to tour the spacious building and see what it has to offer. Refreshments will be served and there will be drawings for special prizes: $100 for shopping and a $50 gas card.
Music will also be featured.
Faiger Blackwell, Sr. explains, "We had wanted to expand for some time, but in today's economy it is quite expensive to build. I had stopped by to inquire about purchasing one of Harrelson's vehicles and was told the property itself might be for sale."
After negotiating with Mr. Harrelson, it was settled that Blackwell would buy the building and move his funeral home business there. There is another Blackwell Funeral Home located in Burlington.
Blackwell had recently built a crematory behind the former location on Main Street that will continue to operate with some specific business operations being held at that building. Blackwell shares that it has areas that could be rented out for office space for other businesses in the area. "We have plenty or room there and also at this new location for civic meetings or conferences that we could make available for rentals."
He adds that the new location has a large chapel that will come in handy for large funerals as well as spacious visitation rooms. "In the event that we have an overflow, we can always use the facilities at the Main Street location too. We are fortunate that this is the home to the largest chapel in Caswell County."
His son, Faiger (Grea) Blackwell II is very pleased with the spacious accommodations they will be able to offer clients.
Blackwell points out that Harrelson Funeral Services stems from a long line of integrity and quality services although it ran into difficulties in latter years when it changed hands. "We will offer our services regardless of income, race, or culture. We want to educate the public about the benefits of pre-planning your arrangements. God has given us this opportunity and we want to use it to benefit the community."
Grea Blackwell shares that he is excited and pleased that the new location will be right across from their church, Pinnacle Ministries, a non denominational facility well known in the area for also offering an ongoing food pantry and tutoring help for young people.
In addition to funeral services and the crematory, Blackwell also offers flowers.
Everyone is encouraged to attend the grand opening and enjoy fellowship and pleasure over the new life that the former Harrelson Funeral Services is enjoying.
The Caswell Messenger (Yanceyville, NC), 7 December 2022.
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