Townes Funeral Home got its start when Frederick William “Will” Townes, then an employee of Kerns and Ferrell Furniture in Pittsylvania county, who were also in the business of making wagons as well as coffins. Mr. Townes entry into the funeral business began as he made deliveries of caskets to grieving families. Those deliveries turned into the providing of the necessary miscellany associated with burials: a hearse (or any wagon or carriage large enough to carry a coffin), folding stools upon which to rest the coffin, and the straps necessary to lower the coffin into the grave. Kerns and Ferrell eventually moved to Danville and carried out their furniture and undertaking business in a storefront located at 533-555 Main Street (now Ferrell Lofts.) In April of 1892, Mr. Townes bought out the undertaking portion of the enterprise and by 1899, after attending the Renuard School of Embalming in New York City, he moved next door to a newly built storefront at at 531 Main Street (now the home of Chestnut Lane).

In 1923, Mr. Townes moved his business to 635 Main Street, in a building designed for him by J. Bryant Heard (now the JP Financial Center). The photo at top of this post shows the Townes fleet of vehicles. Townes was next-door-neighbor to T. A. Fox Funeral Home. Rather than competing, the two operations found ways to help and support each other, interchanging nameplates on their hearses in order to pick up a body or to make a delivery or any other task the other was unable to attend to.

By 1916, Will Townes was no longer working alone. Besides his son who had come into the business with him, his daughter had married the son of his former employer, J. Blaire Kerns, who had joined the operation as well, and so Mr. Townes initiated a change of name. The business was thereafter to be known as F. W. Townes & Son.

In 1935 Mr. Townes’ wife, Mellie A. Stovall Townes, died. A few months later, he followed her, and F. W. Townes, Jr. took over as president of the business, while J. Blair Kerns assumed the role of vice president.

Through decades of faithful service, the funeral home and its directors have served the community, offering assistance even to those without the resources to pay. Adrian O’Connor, in his book River City: Stories of Danville, relates several instances where the business and its proprietors offered services above and beyond their duty. In one instance, Mr. Townes (Jr.) made a regular delivery of coal to a woman of little means on Union Street. In the case of a recent widow who had to wait for insurance money to come in before she could pay for her services was offered deference. Not only did they proceed with the rites in advance of payment but the Townes family made sure she had groceries in the interim. A third remarkable instance has been put down on record of a Mrs. Wittkopf who passed away without family to claim her. The funeral home kept her in a receiving vault for nearly a year before at last purchasing a burial site for her at Highland Burial Park.

F. W. Townes, Jr. married Ruth Carter Townes. In the couple’s later years, as their health began to fail, it became clear to their son, William “Bill” Townes, III, that he had a decision to make as to whether he would continue his studies at the University of Virginia or return home to help with the family business. At last he decided to carry on the family tradition, and he returned to Danville. There were no easy in’s for Bill, however. He was required to learn the trade from the ground up as his father and grandfather before him had done.

Frederick William “Bill” Townes III was married to Catherine “Kitty” Townes, the daughter of Landon Wyatt, a prominent Danville businessman and state senator

Mr. Townes Jr. died in 1957. In 1965, the same year that his wife, Ruth Carter Townes passed away, two permits were issued to allow for the demolition of two homes at 215 and 221 West Main Street, those of cousins George R. and J. Pemberton Penn, in preparation of Townes Funeral Home to relocate to their present location at 215 West Main Street. In 1966, a fire damaged the 635 Main Street location. It was sold to the Danville Chamber of Commerce.

The construction of the new site was not without its controversies. Despite opposition from 62% of the neighboring West Main Street residents, the zoning was granted, likely in anticipation of the installation of a new thoroughfare through the area. City council, despite opposition, granted the permits in a unanimous decision.

The building, designed by Calvert and Lewis Architects, was built to reflect similar homes in the area. “Every effort has been made,” Mr. Townes told the Danville Register in March of 1966, “to preserve the atmosphere that has prevailed since the two Penn mansions were built back in 1918.” Their effort included retaining the oaks that had stood there since that time and for a century or more prior.

Townes Funeral Home is currently owned and operated by David Fuquay who has been with the funeral home for the past 52 years and who has dedicated himself to carrying on the legacy of service that the Townes family began nearly 130 years ago.

🔊 Hear The Story

Sources:

Virginia, Rebirth of the Old Dominion; Philip Alexander Bruce; 1929; Vol 5. pg. 602 (including photo of F.W. Townes)

River City: Stories of Danville, Adrian O’Connor

1899 Sandborn Map

Danville Bee archives, including obituaries and advertisements, found at Newspapers.com

The Danville Register, “Council Approves Permit For Townes Funeral Home”, 11 September 1965, available at Newspapers.com

David Fuquay, present owner of Townes Funeral Home (which much thanks)

Featured image found in Danville & Pittsylvania County Memories: A Photographic History of the 1800’s through the 1930’s, Danville Register and Bee