Lady’s Funeral Home is the oldest funeral home in Kannapolis with its roots dating back to the Lowe Brothers and Company starting in 1906. At the invitation of Mr. J.W. Cannon, the Lowe Brothers came to the new town of Kannapolis to a building provided by Cannon Mills. The business was the town’s General Store, as well as, a place where families would purchase coffins & caskets. It was run by the Lowe brothers, C.E. Lowe, J.G. Lowe, and a third partner that started the business. That business was located at the corner of Main and 1st Streets in Kannapolis.
Later, the funeral part of the business was transformed by the same C.E. Lowe, J.G. Lowe along with R.Q. Lowe, W.L. Yost, and A.J. Demarcus who created and incorporated a new undertaking business by the name of Demarcus Undertaking Company on May 11, 1918. The business was named after Mr. Demarcus because he had been associated with the undertaking business throughout the Cabarrus and Rowan County area. Mr. Demarcus along with Mr. Yost were part-owners of the H.B. Wilkinson Undertaking Company that was located in Concord.
In 1924, the business changed hands and became a second location for Bell & Harris Funeral Home. Nine years later, in 1933, the business was bought by J.C. Taylor (former manager for Bell & Harris for 15 years), Andrew Zimmer Price, and J.N. Ritchie (local funeral director) and it became Ritchie-Taylor Funeral Home. By this time, the funeral home had relocated to South Main Street in Kannapolis.
Less than a year later on March 8, 1934, Mr. Edgar Elwood Lady, Charles David Alexander, Jr., Oscar Edward Scarboro, Walter Henry Brown, Sr., and David Andrew Jolley purchased the Ritchie-Taylor Funeral Home, to incorporate what is now Lady's Funeral Home. Mr. Ritchie was retained as the funeral home’s embalmer.
Mr. Lady, whom the funeral home is named after, would operate the funeral home for several years. He was formerly the postmaster in Kannapolis, and prior to being postmaster, he worked in the administrative offices of Cannon Mills.
One of the investors with Mr. Lady, Mr. W. H. Brown, Sr., was a local oil company distributor who had a younger brother with an interest in the funeral business. The young man, Clifford H. Brown, went on to complete his training at the McAllister Embalming Institute in New York. Upon his return to Kannapolis and Lady's Funeral Home his brother gave him his interest in the funeral home to help give him a start in what turned out to be a career of over forty years in the funeral business. During his years in funeral service, he served as President and Executive member of the North Carolina Board of Embalmers & Funeral Directors, and also was the coroner of Cabarrus County for sixteen years.
During the early years with the business, Mr. Brown obtained the majority ownership of Lady's Funeral Home. Mr. Brown, along with the funeral home manager, G.N. “Bud” Coggins, operated the business until Brown’s death in August of 1980.
At his death, Mr. Brown passed on his holdings in the funeral home to the funeral director staff as partners in ownership. Following the death of Mr. Coggins in 1987, the business continued with Michael Reavis, who first came to work for the firm in 1966 and graduated from Gupton-Jones College of Mortuary Science, and Danny Carroll, who graduated from the Dallas Institute of Mortuary Science in 1975. In 2010, Mr. Carroll died and later that year Mr. Reavis acquired total ownership of the business.
The business is now in its 4th location since 1934 (6th since 1910), at which time it was located in a storefront on South Main Street. The next location was on West Avenue in the downtown district of Kannapolis, which was also a small storefront facility.
In October of 1950, the business moved several blocks to a large home on South Ridge Avenue at First Street, which provided more space and included the opportunity to offer the first chapel in the area. Eighteen years later, the funeral home relocated to what was the edge of town at that time, to our current location on North Cannon Boulevard. This facility was a very large colonial home which was originally built as a residence by a local physician. The home was purchased in late 1966 and took until the fall of 1968 for all remodeling and additions to be completed. Since 1968, several additions have been added and our facilities have continued to be updated. One thing that has not changed is our home-like atmosphere that still remains to this day.
Included in our updates is our on-site crematory which is the only funeral home located crematory serving this area. Lady's Funeral Home has been a leader in bringing new ideas to funeral services in the area. Among those, we were the first funeral home in Cabarrus and Southern Rowan County to have an internet presence offering funeral information at the click of a button. We offer DVD picture slideshows and Chapel service recordings on CD. There are many more ways that we can help provide a meaningful service to a family and their loved one.
As we move forward, we continue to improve upon our past. We officially opened a new facility in September 2008. The Amity House at Lady’s is a multifunctional facility that may be used for memorial services, business meetings, family/school reunions, seminars, baby/wedding showers, etc. This facility is designed to meet the needs of our ever-changing society and ideals. It will accommodate up to 100 people for meals and meetings and has up to date audio and visual equipment.
