“As a kid I worked at Heartland Funeral Home with Clarine Kellam, who is joining us along with Benny Allcorn,” Mercer said in a Friday interview. “I always wanted to come back and bring them here. They spoke highly of Davis-Morris for a long time, Clarine was the manager here for a while, and I’ve always been in love with the facility and I’ve always been in love with Brown County and the community. Over the years I’ve watched it grow and change and I want to be a part of it and I want to help.”
Going forward, the facility will be known as Heritage Funeral Home Davis-Morris Chapel.
“Davis- Morris has a long-standing name, almost 100 years, so we want to continue the legacy that once was prior to corporate taking over,” Mercer said. “I’m just not corporate-minded. I feel that family is everything and family is the heart of everything we do. My daughter works here and I’m proud she wants to be a funeral director and take over things so I’m hopeful our family will be able to serve a lot of families here.”
Mercer stated extensive renovations will soon start taking place.
“We’re going to completely renovate the building and make it more modern and elegant, but on the same note I grew up very poor and I maintain that I know where I came from,” Mercer said.
Along with Mercer, Kellam and Allcorn, the Heritage staff also includes Dr. Jason Fulton, Teresa Doyal, Shane Mercer, Aubrey Bucholz, and Linden Mercer.
Mercer spoke about what he feels makes Heritage Funeral Homes unique.
“When someone passes away, the family is left with the financial hardship of how to navigate that stress and anxiety of how to financially afford their bills, so we want to alleviate that aspect and give them a very top-notch, elegant end of life celebration for a very affordable price,” Mercer said. “All of our services are $3,995 which includes casket and everything we have control over. We want them to come here and spend their time focusing on grieving and re-establishing their life in a new found way and not worry about the financial hardship of it.”
Heritage Funeral Homes also has locations in Menard, Brady, San Saba and Mercer’s hometown of Lampasas.
“The funeral home I first worked at as a kid was Briggs-Gamel Funeral Home and I ended up purchasing the facility,” Mercer said. “It was completely dilapidated and we completely restored it back into the Briggs-Gamel it once was. Now we’ve decided to come here and take care of the community here.”
Fulton, also a co-owner, added, “You can check our history out with other communities we serve and see what we’ve done there and know that we’re good people that want to help. Dr. Mercer or I neither one take a salary from the funeral home. This is our ministry to give back to people, to provide the best service for the least amount of money. That’s our mindset. We provide the same service across the board to everyone. We put our best foot forward, our best price forward when you walk in the door.”
