BY LEE OVERTON
This article is Overton funeral history and recollections as told to me. My thought was to record the bits and pieces my dad (Milford) shared, often on those long trips we made together to and from hospitals. My grandfather’s sisters, Bessie and Gladys, verbally relayed information to me before their passing. Marlene and I spent much time in Walnut, Iowa, where we were able to visit dad’s first home, walk the cemetery, have coffee and Danish in what was the Comer Undertaking Parlor and Furniture. We saw where Calvin Clyde Overton (my grandfather) opened his first funeral services, on the NE corner on Antique City Dr. diagonally across from the “Comer” building at 230 Antique City Drive. There were old newspaper ads and local people, too. We were fortunate at the time, as all those human contacts are deceased. Karen and Jim Hansen (Walnut Genealogy Society) were and are so helpful. All, it seems, would be lost, if I didn’t record it here. Yes, some things may not be “Gospel “as they say. But who’s going to correct me!
Walnut is a nice, friendly place with lots of Overton history and no presence anymore. Samuel Comer established the Undertaking parlor in Walnut. (His wife, Amanda, was a Coppess from Hanging Tree Twp., Indiana, also Olin, Iowa.) She was the sister of Martha Coppess, the wife of Usebius Overton (my great-grandfather), who brought the Overton clan to Walnut.
Now that we have arrived, let’s get into the beginning of the funeral thing. Comer took care of the deceased: funeral arrangements, merchandise like casket and burial containers, cemetery, etc. Comer was considered the Undertaker, and never an embalmer. Mable Overton Ames was Usebius’ oldest daughter and sister to my grandfather C. C. Overton. Mable was the person who went to the homes and “laid the deceased out.” For example, she would find the body in a back bedroom. First, undress, then wash and clean, close all body openings, position the body. Dress the body, hair, cosmetics, place into the “coffin.” (The family had selected it from the display at the furniture store.) The cemetery container was a wooden box; often it was the shipping box used for shipping by rail to the undertaker.
Some interesting things: often a coffin had to enter and leave through a window. Thus, the standard size bedroom door became thirty inches wide and outside doors thirty-six inches wide. In days gone by, many visitations were in the home, so portable support equipment was provided, like kneeling rails, large crucifix, and candle stands for Catholics. Deep red velvet drapery would surround the coffin area, creating a nice contrast between the funeral flowers and the coffin. A fly netting might be draped over the open coffin lid, to protect the body and possibly cover up a blemish on the body. Incense often burned to mask a decaying body (particularly without embalming or in hot conditions). An electric floor lamp with colored bulbs was at each end of the coffin.
Mable was the Overton’s beginning in the funeral business. According to the Iowa law, you must be a licensed person to embalm; Comer decided not to become licensed. He instead offered to send Clyde Overton, Mable’s younger brother to Des Moines for the six-month course. Mable helped him study, with brother Lewis also hanging on to every word. Grandpa passed the state licensing boards, becoming the first man in the state to do so. (A woman completed the test at the same time.) He began working for Comer. Later, he opened a funeral business in Walnut.
Lewis passed the test soon after. The two brothers became partners and purchased a funeral business with a store front parlor on the NE side of the square in Centerville, Iowa. Clyde died of the Spanish Influenza on Oct. 26, 1918, leaving a widow and two children. (Milford, my father, was one of them.) Lewis had dissolved his partnership earlier, and moved to an Indianola, Ia. funeral home. Milford, upon reaching manhood, worked for Hodges Furniture and Funeral Home, getting his embalming education at St. Louis, then moved to Eldon, Ia. with new wife and baby Lee. Then we moved to Ottumwa, Ia. and on to Batavia, Ia.; by now brothers Steven and Bruce were born. The family moved to Hopkinton, Ia. in the mid-1940’s to work for Goettsch Funeral Homes with a furniture store in Hopkinton. We lived in the funeral home.
Later, Dad and Mom purchased the Wunder Funeral Home in Dysart, Ia.; moving in July 1953. In 1954, they purchased the furniture store too. Still later, dad purchased Boettcher Furniture in Traer, Ia. Lee and Marlene moved to Traer, where we later remodeled a big house and opened a funeral service. Bruce got his license, moving into the funeral home. Lee and family moved to Cedar Rapids. The brothers closed the Dysart furniture store, moving operations to the Traer store to be managed by Steve Overton. Bruce remained a partner with Steve in the furniture business, but became more involved with expanding his Funeral Services to nearby locations. Shaun, Steve’s son, joined Bruce’s staff, later becoming licensed; next Bruce’s son Blair joined, then Shaun’s brother Stu. Shaun lived in the Toledo Funeral Home. Blair lived at the Vinton Funeral Home. Stu worked at the funeral homes, while living in Vinton. Bruce purchased the funeral homes and one half the furniture store with Steve. Bruce and wife Barbara went on to acquire 7 funeral homes: Vinton, Blairstown, Belle Plaine, Toledo, and Garwin in addition to the Dysart and Traer locations. I rejoined the Overton Family Funeral Homes as a funeral planner.
Bruce was President of Iowa Funeral Directors and later was elected the National President. Shaun became a very key employee.
After the death of Barbara, Bruce decided to sell the funeral homes to a Texas company that buys and sells funeral homes. They sold Vinton, Blairstown, and Toledo. That forced Shaun and Stu to work for the old competition (ouch), because they had signed a no compete agreement. Shaun moved to Des Moines. Stu left the business entirely. When my brother Bruce died, his family sold off the rest of the funeral homes. Blair moved to Des Moines and is an owner or partner in funeral services. Shaun is a funeral director for a large Des Moines company.
LO