Funeral homes, cemeteries change hands

On Aug. 17, their son, Rusty Shadel, bought them back.

“Our places just came available and I was fortunate enough to buy them,” Rusty Shadel said.

While it’s a heartwarming story of family businesses coming back under family ownership, it’s not likely to lead to sweeping changes at Shadel’s Colonial Chapel in Lebanon and Shadel’s Colonial Chapel in Stoutland. Shadel had managed those and other properties for SCI for 18 years.

Those properties became available when SCI decided they didn’t fit into the company’s growth strategy, according to spokeswoman Robyn Sadowsky, who declined to explain further.

SCI still owns more than 40 properties in Missouri.

In addition to the Lebanon and Stoutland deals, SCI sold five Springfield funeral properties Sept. 12 to Tampa, Fla.-based Keystone Group Holdings Inc.

Keystone Group owns 175 funeral homes in the United States and Canada, now including Thieme-Shadel Funeral Service at Rivermonte and at White Chapel. The deal included Eastlawn, Rivermonte and White Chapel cemeteries.

Keystone Group’s new properties bear the Klingner-Cope name and are managed by Dick Cope. Keystone Group has owned Klingner-Cope Family Funeral Home on North Benton, which Cope already managed, since 1998.

Both Keystone and SCI have a history of using the names of local managers on its homes to connect with the community.

“It’s a big jump for us,” Cope said of the purchases. “It just gives us a better opportunity to meet market share in Springfield.”

Cope said Keystone Group would now service about a quarter of Springfield’s funeral business. Its local work force increased from four to 35 employees.

Still, Cope admits Springfield-based Greenlawn Funeral Home Inc. would remain the local leader, conducting about half of Springfield’s funerals through its three homes. Greenlawn’s newest – a 23,000-square-foot home with two chapels and eight visitation rooms – opened in September at 3540 E. Seminole St.

From Greenlawn’s perspective, the transaction will have little impact on it and other local funeral providers.

Greenlawn Marketing Director Jim Spackman said he doesn’t expect Keystone Group to change prices or services at its new properties.

“They’re not a shake, rattle and roll operation,” he said. “They’re going to be very similar to SCI.”