Swindell

About Us

Swindell Funeral Home, Inc. was originally opened as a branch of Twiford Funeral Homes of Elizabeth City in 1952 when Sam A. Twiford acquired the former Gaither residence at 509 Dobbs Street in Hertford. He converted the house into a then-modern funeral home and promoted Marion Smith Swindell to manage the firm. After serving as manager for seven years, Marion and his wife Betty, also a licensed funeral director, bought the business and its assets in June of 1959 and founded Swindell Funeral Home. He continued to own and operate the business for the next 26 years until, in November of 1985, he retired and handed over the reigns to his son, W. Larry Swindell. Larry has owned and operated the family business since and continues to provide "a tradition of service" to the people of Perquimans County and the Albemarle area.

In the mid 1960s, as the business grew, so did the need for more facilities. Marion had a new garage building with two apartments built behind the funeral home. The original garage and outbuilding were demolished soon after completion of the new building.

In the fall of 1967, Marion and Issac Lowe of Lowe Funeral Home wrote open letters to the people of Perquimans County explaining the reason for ceasing ambulance service in the near future. Up until around that time, local funeral homes around the country had provided ambulance services to their surrounding communities, as they were the only parties with vehicles large enough to accommodate a stretcher. The State Legislature of North Carolina passed new laws that year making it too expensive for funeral homes to continue ambulance operations. Following with this decree, Marion donated an ambulance and all of the funeral home's ambulance equipment to the newly formed Perquimans County Rescue Squad.

Earlier that year, Marion entered into a two-year partnership with H. Brad Williford, Jr. in purchasing Williford Funeral Home in Edenton, NC. This partnership allowed Marion to help keep Williford's afloat after the death of its founder, T.B. Williford in 1966.

The following year, a complete renovation and expansion project began on the funeral home. A new casket display room, along with additional rooms upstairs in the apartment, was added onto the existing building. The original front porch was removed and replaced with a new, two-story one with tall, Doric columns and the entire facade of the building was bricked.

In November of 1975, Marion entered into a partnership with David Bass in purchasing the former Colonial Funeral Home from its shareholders and renamed it Swindell-Bass Funeral Home. With this purchase marked a return of sorts in two ways. The first was Marion's return to Edenton as a businessman since his partnership in Williford Funeral Home six years before. The second return was Larry coming home to join the family business. He had been working in New Bern with the former Pollock Funeral home since graduating from mortuary school in March of 1973.

In 1981, Larry was named manager of Swindell-Bass Funeral Home and remained as such until the firm was sold to Williford-Barham Funeral Home in December of 1982. This led Larry to move with his wife, Suzy, and their two sons to finally make the return complete and move to Hertford.

Also during this time frame, Marion purchased a vacant house and lot next to the funeral home and had the house moved away from the street-front. Relocating this house gave the funeral home its first parking lot. Beforehand, the firm relied totally on street parking for visitors. All this work was completed by mid-1984 in time to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary.

The late 1980s were some of the most trying years in the history of Swindell Funeral Home as many changes, both good and bad, took place.

Marion retired for medical reasons in 1985 and retired to Myrtle Beach, SC the next year. His retirement led to him selling the business to Larry in November of that year. Two years later in 1987, only two years after taking over from his father, Larry was diagnosed with a tumor on the base of his brain. It was removed successfully in surgery and he has since made a full recovery. This event led his wife Suzy to join the firm in 1988 and receive her funeral-directing license in 1989.

Sadly though, Larry was not the only one in our family to have a life-threatening illness. About a year after moving to South Carolina, Marion was diagnosed with cancer and passed away May 8, 1988.

The end of the 1980s turned brighter for the firm as Larry began the second major restoration and expansion of the funeral home's facilities since it had opened its doors in 1952. During this renovation, most of the existing building was redecorated with new wallpaper and carpet. An addition on the rear of the building included a new, modern preparation room, a service hall with storage and laundry facilities, and an entry room for families to enter the chapel through after parking underneath the new carport.

Carrying on the "tradition of service" his father created, Larry has kept Swindell Funeral Home's reputation as a leader in the industry, both locally and nationally, intact. After passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, Swindell Funeral Home was one of the first businesses in Perquimans County to become barrier-free to the disabled. One of the restrooms was enlarged to accommodate a wheelchair-bound individual. This was in addition to a wheelchair ramp that was added during the 1988 expansion.

A few years later, recognizing an increase in the number of cremations being requested in the area, the first cremation products display room in eastern North Carolina was completed in 1994.

Leading into the 21st century, Swindell Funeral Home has continued to evolve with the ever-changing funeral industry. Recognizing the turn towards cremation and wanting to be known as a provider of cremation, a name change to Swindell Funeral and Cremation Services was made. In early 2002, a new computer system was installed to help aid both our funeral directors and the families we serve in making funeral arrangements. The Family Advisor program, through Aurora Casket Company, enables our staff to show many more caskets, urns, etc. than before when using a traditional display room where only 18 caskets could be displayed. This system has also made it possible for us to meet another need of our families by providing larger viewing facilities for the increasing number of visitations held at the funeral home each year. The first major renovation of the new century has seen our former casket display room converted into two spacious, open rooms to allow for two visitations to take place at the same time. Other changes include the remodeling of the former visitation rooms into an office and a sitting room and the installation of a full conference room for making arrangements. New carpet has also been installed throughout most of the building.

Several new services were implemented in 2009 - "Green Funerals", "Biker Funerals" and a website.. "Green Funerals" offer services and merchandise that are ecologically friendly in that the caskets have no metal parts, there is no embalming nor viewing, graves are hand dug and no protective vault is used. "Biker Funerals" utilize a motorcycle hearse rather than the traditional funeral home hearse and the website offers online information and condolences.

Swindell Funeral and Cremation Services strives to be a leader in funeral service to the people of the Albemarle area. It is our choice to not be the biggest or the cheapest but to be big enough to handle your needs and small enough to offer the personal attention every family needs and deserves at the time of a loved one's death. Our focus on each funeral is on the family we are serving at that time. Our offerings of service and merchandise are of a quality that no family would be ashamed of using but still be affordable to all.