The legacy of family ownership that is today Eggleston, Meinert & Pavley Funeral Homes began 100 years ago.

In 1911, the Howard A. Eggleston Funeral Home was established at 603 Main Street in East Toledo. Eggleston’s family continues to operate the business today.

It’s such an honor to carry on the family business,” said Elizabeth “Lisa” K. Pavley (Meinert), Howard Eggleston’s great-granddaughter. “It’s an honor and a responsibility but it’s also a privilege to be able to serve the community that I grew up in.”

Dennis & Lisa Pavley. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)

Lisa says she has childhood memories of her great-grandfather. Today, Lisa and her husband Dennis are both individually licensed directors. They met at Defiance College and got married in 1979. After Dennis completed his funeral studies in Cincinnati, the couple joined the firm in 1982.

“I think it’s a helping profession,” Dennis said. “The rewards are emotionally great. We are in a position where we can help people during their worst time ever and if we can transition from the point where a death of a loved one takes place until the point where they can kind of work through that, it’s very rewarding. It’s kind of nice to know that we’ve been in business for 100 years serving families and we know our families very well, and in doing so, we can serve them very well.

“If you look at some of the area funeral homes here, there are a few that have a history longer than ours but not many,” Dennis continued.

Their 25-year-old son Matthew grew up around the business and has always been there to help, whether it meant cutting the lawn or washing cars.

“Lisa and I are fourth generation family members, and our fifth generation (Matthew) just completed his funeral studies and all his board exams and is waiting for his licensure,” Dennis said.

The business can trace its roots back to Richard S. Clegg, father-in-law to Howard Eggleston. Clegg was a pioneer undertaker, cabinet and casket maker. He was born in England, came to this country as a boy and lived in Lambertville, Michigan and Perrysburg before locating his funeral business in East Toledo.

Eggleston was a local boy who grew up from humble beginnings. He married Anna Clegg and partnered with his father-in-law in 1906 with the opening of Clegg & Eggleston Funeral Directors on Starr Avenue in East Toledo. This partnership lasted until 1911 when Eggleston opened his own funeral home on Main Street.

At that time, there were two undertakers practicing locally. So when Eggleston began his career, little was recorded, and probably no one would have guessed his funeral home would be the only family-oriented home still in business on the east side at the beginning of the 21st Century.

In 1922, Eggleston constructed the area’s first modern funeral home at 732 Main Street. Prior to his design, funeral homes consisted of a local storefront, usually with a livery in the rear of the building. His new funeral home would include offices, a preparation area, and visitation chapels.

In 1924, Kermit Meinert, Howard’s son-in-law, joined the firm. As the business grew, so did Eggleston and Meinert’s commitment to the community.

Eggleston would help his friend, George Pearson, a Van Wert native and Toledo Blade writer, work for the purchase of Pearson Metropark. Meinert would help his friend, Warren Densmore, establish the old Neighborhood House, later to become the East Toledo Family Center, and would lead the drive for a new east side YMCA.

Kerm Meinert and his family lived above the funeral home on Main Street, which Lisa says is where family dinners were often held. The building was sold in the mid-1980s and it became a medical facility.

“The Main Street building was very elegant,” Lisa said. “That’s what stands out about that. We had multiple garages and at that time we had an ambulance service, so as kids we kind of went all through those buildings and the casket area. That funeral home was on the upper level so there was an elevator in that building.”

In 1954 Lisa’s father, Donn H. Meinert, became the third generation of funeral directors in the firm. At this time, there were over a half dozen funeral homes in East Toledo.

As a resident of Oregon and former Oregon councilman, Donn and his wife, Elizabeth, were well aware of the growth occurring in the eastern suburbs. As the community grew, so did Eggleston, Meinert & Pavley with the completion in 1972 of the funeral home in Oregon.

Located at Starr Avenue and Coy Road, this facility would see several additions, growing to over 10,000 square feet, making it possible to serve several families simultaneously in spacious surroundings. The building was constructed at ground level and is handicap accessible.

“It’s evolved over the years. When I first became involved in the early 80s, the lounges we had here were smoking lounges and they were very small and people smoked. Obviously, with smoking going by the wayside, almost taboo anymore, we do smoking areas outside obviously and we’ve converted our lounges into comfort areas for the family,” Dennis said.

“We’re quite proud of the fact that the areas we provide have kitchen facilities, tables, and food is a big part of funeral visitations right now. Our goal is to provide each family with their own space so a family doesn’t have to share a lounge like in years past. Each of our buildings we do have special rooms for each family that might have visitation going on. That is something that has changed over the years.”

Lisa said memorialisation has changed with celebration of life photos and videos, explaining, “We’re going more high-tech with some of our equipment.”

Dennis explained, “We offer the video collages along with the collages we put on stands. People will bring in, if they happen to be part of a fire department or police department, a uniform. Or if they were big with NASCAR, or if they were big football fans, we have mannequins that they can bring in their jerseys to set up. Personalization has come a long way and that seems to be big at this particular point. With the caskets, the inserts can be Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Michigan — you name it.”

Eggleston-Meinert-Pavley remains involved in the community.”

“It’s been a big mantra for my family from my Grandpa Kerm’s day to be community-involved,” Lisa said. “So many of our staff and ourselves are involved in so many activities, charities, and non-profits, it’s just very rewarding from that standpoint to give back to the community.”

Dennis said, “It was very important to her grandfather Kerm that we be involved. He was really involved with Warren Densmore and felt it was very important to help the kids. We’re very active — Lisa is on the board at the East Toledo Family Center. We’ve both been part of the Oregon (Eastern Maumee Bay) Chamber and a host of organizations that we belong to. We’re quite proud of the fact that we recruit some of the best that we can possibly find in the funeral service, train them, and then retrain them.”

Funeral director Terry Breymaier, who has been with the firm over 45 years, remains involved with Friends of Pearson Park and the metropark’s recent expansion.

In 2000, Eggleston, Meinert & Pavley opened its newest home on Woodville Road in Millbury and purchased the Kinsey Funeral Home in East Toledo’s Birmingham neighborhood. Lisa said the Birmingham home brings her family back full circle to its Hungarian heritage.

Added to the history of the firm was the destruction of the sign just outside the Millbury home by an EF-4 tornado that hit the area on June 6, 2010. The twister, which killed six people, did not harm the building or flower pots outside, but since the sign has been restored and they put up heavier flower pots.

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