Celebrating 140 years in business

By ELLEN KOLMAN - Staff Writer - ekolman@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

October 22, 2008 01:09 pm

— CONNEAUT — In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship; Wyoming became a U.S. territory; Memorial Day (known as Decoration Day) was observed for the first time; and Marcy Funeral Home was founded by Willard Marcy in Conneaut.
“Willard Marcy was my great-great-grandfather,” said Bob Marcy, funeral director at Marcy Funeral Home, 208 Liberty St.. The business is celebrating 140 years of continuous operation.
Marcy Funeral Home began in East Conneaut in a former blacksmith shop, then moved to lower East Main Street, then to 239 Liberty St., and then settled in its present location.
Charles Marcy, Willard’s son, took over operation in 1896 and was well loved and successful for 55 years. Hugh Marcy, Charles’ son, joined in the partnership with his father in 1911, until his early death at age 47. Robert C. Marcy, Charles’ second son, joined the funeral home in 1933 after receiving his embalmer’s license. Bob Marcy, son of Robert C., joined his father in 1961 and took over ownership in 1976 at the time of his father’s retirement.
“Dad continued to work here until he was 91 years old,” Marcy said. “Everyone loved to see him still here, greeting people.”
For almost a century and half, Marcy Funeral Home has seen many changes in the funeral industry, one of them being the mode of transporting the deceased.
“Of course, before automobiles, the hearse was a horse-drawn carriage. After cars were invented and by the time my Dad was a funeral director, a large car served as the town ambulance and hearse,” Marcy said. “It wasn’t until the late 1960s or early 70s that local fire departments took over ambulance service.”
“I remember as a boy around 12 years old, I would go out on ambulance calls with my Dad, and I got to sound the siren,” he said.
Growing up around the family business, Marcy, who has been a licensed funeral director for 47 years, felt it was a natural transition for him to become a funeral director and take over the family business.
“It has been a good business for us and our privilege to serve our neighbors and friends with the best we can give,” he said.
Kori Marcy-Zappitelli joined her father in 2000, becoming not only a fifth-generation funeral director, but also the first woman in Conneaut to become a licensed embalmer after continuing her education in Pittsburgh.
“Growing up in the business, I was (at the funeral home) quite a bit,” she said. “I saw the importance of the business and the care my father and grandfather showed families. I wanted to follow in their footsteps.”
The profession gives Marcy-Zappitelli a chance to help people during a particularly trying time in their lives.
“We’re able to help families celebrate a loved one’s life,” she said. “We are good listeners; a lot of families will know what they don’t want but don’t always know what they do want. So we try to help them make the arrangements as meaningful as possible.”
To help create a soothing, spacious and comfortable setting for families to make decisions, the funeral home recently opened its family arrangement center.
“Here we can give the families the time they need to see what we have to offer, ask questions and make decisions,” Marcy-Zappitelli said. “We are pleased that we are able to provide families with all of the options and create the most meaningful service for their loved-one.”
Just some of things on display in the family arrangement center for families to choose from are casket selections, cremation urns, vaults, funeral stationery, specialty memory items and pet cremation urns.
As an embalmer, Marcy-Zappitelli takes great care to make sure the loved-one looks as natural as possible.
“It is not that it doesn’t bother me sometimes (the embalming). I look at them as if this was my mother or grandmother, and how would I want them to look,” she said. “I do the absolute very best job I can for the families.”
Marcy Funeral Home’s service doesn’t end at the funeral. Marcy provides “after care” with an after-care coordinator, who calls the families a couple of weeks after the funeral service to see if they are open to a home visit, and to ask how they are doing. During the home visit, the coordinator provides the families with a packet of helpful grief-related resources.
“We are very proud to have been able to serve our community for so long,” Marcy-Zappitelli said.
Marcy Funeral Home can be reached at (440) 593-4253.

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