As 1 of its oldest corporations, and the oldest Black-owned small business, Barlow Funeral House is a staple in Tipton County.
Launched by Significant Barlow in 1925, the funeral home is nearing a complete century of service by generations of Barlow spouse and children associates.
It is at present operated by Shelia and Brittany Barlow, the widow and daughter of very well-recognized operator Quincy Barlow.
A spouse and children historical past of unpredicted deaths shaped the business’s trajectory.
When Key died in the early 1930s, he remaining the organization to his nephew, V. B. Barlow Sr. He had graduated from mortuary college 33 months prior but ran the business right until his death in 1968.
Soon after V.B died, his spouse, Marjorie W. Barlow, took around the reins of the company right up until she retired in 2001.
“My father died when I was 12-years-old,” the late Quincy Barlow instructed The Chief in 2010. “My mom took around and ran it for 33 a long time. She was the chief principal officer from 1968 to 2001. She’s definitely the one particular who has held this organization collectively.”
Quincy and his brother, Drakely, labored together in the organization until finally Drakely died in 2006.
However, Quincy died in 2015 at age 58. His son, Quinten, ran the small business for a couple of several years until finally his dying in 2017 at age 36. Both equally adult males experienced heart assaults.
Immediately after the fatalities, Shelia and Brittany swore to preserve the goal of the enterprise alive by staying “very neighborhood-provider- oriented.”
“We are grieving in that moment,” Brittany claimed of the passing of her father and brother, “understanding that decline, but at the similar time, we have a company. Service is our leading precedence. We’re not just a funeral household. We’re listed here to do regardless of what the community needs us to do.”
She has her possess motives she stands by and sticks to.
“So, I always like to go via daily life with grit and grace, and which is what we have been in a position to do, to transfer by means of this and tackle the business facet of it, but swish as very well.”
Now, there had been bumps in the highway that they had to prevail over.
“We’ve had struggles just to get to this stage proper here,” Shelia added.
They experienced to understand the business aspect of the funeral sector. The good thing is, after receiving her B.A. from Vanderbilt, Brittany concluded mortuary university and with her experience developing up in the making, she overcame the discovering curve.
“I understood that this would a element of my lifestyle some way, somehow,” Brittany claimed, “but we weren’t listed here each individual working day. We weren’t handling the business facet of it.”
Brittany looks up to her grandmother, who handed in 2014, for her diligence to phase up when wanted.
“My grandmother, who had no funeral home business back again- floor, ran this organization. She was transformational in this funeral industry. She became a woman entrepreneur in the ‘60s, when that was unheard of.”
Shelia and Brittany had to advise the group that the Barlow Funeral Household wasn’t closed by continuing to stand by their morals and be an asset to any- physique they encountered.
Considering the fact that a lot of folks were being familiar with Quincy and Quinten, they had to make their name regarded.
“We are grateful and grateful they trapped with us,” Shelia mentioned. They saved the household legacy alive not because they could not let the company die out, but to coach up the subsequent era of Barlow’s, consisting of Brittany’s son, Malcom, and Quinten’s two young children.
“We want them to know that the legacy of relocating as a result of lifestyle via grit and grace, recognizing that there is likely to be trials and tribulations, not just as business proprietor as woman business owners, but just in everyday living. Issues happen.”
Barlow Funeral Dwelling has been positioned at its existing place, 205 N. Major Street, considering that 1944.
For far more info about the family members small business, see barlowfuneralhome.com.