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 408 East Franklin Street, P.O. Box 488, Rockingham, NC 28380 Phone: 910-895-5055 ~ Fax: 910-895-5054 |
Our History
Postcard Circa 1955
Built for the Walter Leak Parsons family in 1892, Russell-Marks Funeral Home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mr. Parsons was a prominent attorney and state Senator at the turn of the century, and his private residence reflected it. Built in the Victorian style, it was originally adorned with very ornate porches and wooden scrollwork on the exterior. Inside, more detailed woodwork and moldings adorned both floors of the home. The house stayed in the Parsons family as a private home until 1941, when it was purchased by H.H. Leavitt, a funeral director from nearby Wadesboro (his grandson still operates Leavitt Funeral Home in Wadesboro) and was opened to the public as Rockingham Funeral Home, and the chapel with seating for 175 persons was added in 1949.
In approximately 1950-51, W. Raymond Marks, who had married Mr. Leavitt's daughter, Miriam, purchased the funeral home and ambulance service, aptly changing the name to Marks Funeral Home.
In 1957, Bobby Lammonds, the son of a local pentecostal holiness minister and gifted gospel singer, joined the staff and upon graduation from the Cincinnati College of Embalming, began a long and storied career in funeral service. Raymond and Bobby along with their wives and children lived upstairs at the funeral home in those days and for 40 years ran the business as it evolved into Rockingham's leading funeral service firm.
In 1992 Raymond, advancing in age, decided to retire and sold the firm to the Loewen Group based in Canada. Bobby stayed on as manager, but this was a turbulent time for the funeral home as the large corporate ownership and its policies were not accepted very well in Rockingham, and marketshare began to decline.
Then, in 2001, the corporation abruptly and unceremoniously fired Bobby, adding to the problems the funeral home was already facing.
In late 2004, Bobby and Larry W. Russell, a funeral director/embalmer who had worked under Bobby in the 1990's, formed a partnership and started Sandhills Funeral Home in Rockingham, quickly gaining marketshare.
In late 2007, once business at Marks Funeral Home had finally fallen to the point of making it unprofitable for the corporate owners, Larry was able to purchase the facility and its remaining assets.
Sadly, Bobby had died suddenly in early 2007, and was unable to realize the move back home to the place he'd worked so hard for 50 years.
Marks Funeral Home in 1958
The residents of Richmond and surrounding counties have blessed us and been very supportive of our continuing efforts to improve our facilities and services. Larry and his staff, through excellent service, competitive pricing, and the return to a family-owned, personal touch, have managed to bring the firm from the bottom of the barrel to again being one of the leading firms in the area, serving three times the number of client families in a year than were being served by Marks. As we look to the future, we are poised to continually improve our business practices and services to insure a long and prosperous dedication to our client families.