Lake Maxinkuckee Its Intrigue History & Genealogy Culver, Marshall, Indiana

 


Odom Funeral Home



Odom Funeral Home Inc. (L.L.C.)



2006, Nov. 1 - present - Odom Funeral Home - Gregory W. & Karen A. Odom
    In 2013 Odum's son Andrew began to Assist his parents with the operation of the funeral home


2006, Nov. 1 - present - Odom Funeral Home - Gregory W. & Karen A. Odom 2010 - Mar 18 - ‘Quite a legacy’ Odom takes over Culver’s 100-plus year-old funeral business
    By Jeff Kenney Citizen editor

    The Odom name is certainly not new to Culver. After all, it’s been affixed to the large sign outside Culver’s only funeral home since 2005, though only in recent months has the name resided there alone, no longer joined by the “Bonine” moniker which occupied it for some four decades.

    Further, Greg Odom and his family have been familiar to Culverites since 2000, when Greg began working with longtime director Jim Bonine, who began to phase out of the daily operation of the funeral home and mortuary with Greg’s arrival.

    Now, Odom is the fourth owner of the more than century-old business, and just the second outside the Easterday family who started it in the 19th century, and the Bonine-Odom Funeral Home has become the Odom Funeral Home.

    Odom and his wife Karen, along with a 16-year-old son (another son, an adult, lives and works in St. Louis) arrived here in August, 2000, from Marion, Illinois, where Greg had been a third generation coal miner, a profession in which he intended to continue “forever,” he says. However, he started working with a local funeral director in Marion and eventually went back to school at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and obtained his mortuary science degree, working for the next five years in the local mortuary industry.

    A salesman friend of his, who worked the Culver territory and knew Odom wasn’t happy where he was, contacted Odom about the Bonine Funeral Home.

    “We came up and visited one weekend and fell in love with the place,” recalls Odom. “I worked a week and moved up here right away. We did a lot of prayer about it, but it turned out ok. We’ve been very happy here.”

    Odom worked for the Bonines until March of 2005, during which time discussion of possible future ownership of the business came up, something Bonine was also interested in.

    “He (Jim Bonine) helped me learn a lot about the business,” says Odom. “I’d had five years’ experience where I was at, but Jim opened up (about) the business end to me…I’ve got to give credit to Jim for giving me a chance here".

    Odom’s buyout of the business was actually complete last fall, though the name only changed on the sign after the turn of 2010. And over the months, the Odoms have concentrated, says Greg, on “helping families create meaningful ceremonies celebrating the special people in their lives. That’s where I like to spend my energy, so they feel happy that they’ve honored that individual (the deceased).

    “And of course the grief part of it is another side of it that’s a big thing I feel strongly about. We give handouts on grief and point people in the right direction if they need information on grief. We do a remembrance service once a year to celebrate the lives of people to show they’re not forgotten about. On the anniversary of their death, we light a candle in remembrance of that person. We try to keep track of that…we try to show the families that we really care, too.”

    Odom stresses that those in Culver needn’t assume their choices in funeral-related services are limited simply by the small size of their community.

    “I try to keep up with the trade to offer the same value to our families here as in bigger cities. Funerals are expensive, and I want people to feel like they’re getting some value out of what they’re paying for.

    “I keep a list of different types of services and show it to every family,” Odom adds. “We’ve done balloon services,one with a Dixieland band; we did a Notre Dame-themed service. I try to get people to open up their imagination towhatever is meaningful to them.”

    Funeral services have changed over the past decade, Odom notes, including – as might be imagined – facets incorporating technology. The use of digital images and music via DVDs for visitations and other occasions has become a regular part of the funeral home’s offering.

    There’s a push on to show funerals streaming on the internet, something to which Odom says his family has given thought.

    “We want to keep improving,” he explains. “You can’t offer everything, butyou try to offer something really good.”

    Greg Odom believes the business he’s taken over is the second oldest of its kind in Marshall County, having started in downtown Culver in 1893. It was operated by members of the Easterday family until the Bonines took it over in the early 1960s, moving the businessto its present home at the corner of Main Street and Lake Shore Drive.

    “It is quite a legacy,” heacknowledges.

    Odom says the Culver community has embraced his family, a sentiment that’s entirely reciprocal.

    “Culvers been very good to us,” he smiles. “The people have been great to us… very, very welcoming. I can’t say enough about that. And the trust they place in us… we make mistakes, but people have been very forgiving.

    “Culver is a great place,really,” he adds. “It’s aunique little town. I’m surprised at how many people die away from here and want to be buried here. “

    He says he and his family hope they’re here “for a long time. Lots of young guys are looking to get the same opportunity I got. I thank God it worked out.”




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