Legacy of Comfort
White’s Funeral Homes Is A True Legacy Business Boasting
Five Generations Of Continuity
By MEL W RHODES
Photo by Steve Schillio
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ver a century ago, a 26-year-old started down a path
that his descendants still walk today. W.A. White,
progenitor of the White’s Funeral Homes enterprise,
began in 1908 selling coffins out of a Springtown general
merchandise store. By 1913, he’d moved on to Poolville
where he again sold coffins through a mercantile, but a
dream of owning his own funeral home began to take
shape.
After the local embalmer died in 1914, White moved
to Weatherford and set up an undertaking business on the
south side of town. In 1930, he built the original White’s
Funeral Home at 130 Houston Ave. in Weatherford.
Business increased and he was helped by family: brother
J. Herschel White, son Ford White, and son-in-law Morris
Sands.
W.A. and Ford White, first and second generations of
the White’s Funeral Home legacy, returned to Springtown
in 1954 to start another funeral home there.
In 1986, Ford White’s son Bob, third-generation to
work the family business, bought funeral homes in Azle
and Mineral Wells, expanding the White’s service area.
He and wife Carolynn are the current owners of White’s
Funeral Homes, and in 2012 their daughter, Anita White,
joined them in the business, becoming the fourth genera-
tion of the family to carry on the century-old legacy.
“Yes, I’m the fourth generation, and my nephew [Zack
Bellenger] started this year as the fifth generation,” White,
director of operations, said. She remembered growing up
in the business. “I remember back in the day we had a
phone in my house that was for the funeral home — it
was always a line that we weren’t allowed to answer, only
Dad could answer it, when he was on call. It was before
cell phones and all that. … As long as I can remember, it’s
been a part of my life.”
White is very cognizant of the legacy aspect of White’s
Funeral Homes.
“It’s an honor to be a part of this community and a
service that my family has been in for over a hundred
years,” she said. “I’m just continuing on what my great-
grandfather started back in 1908.”