White Chapel Memorial Gardens

Benton Ave. recently closed.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)Buy PhotoThe Klingner-Cope Family Funeral Home at 1635 N. Benton Ave. in Springfield passed away Sept. 5 at the age of 107.It died from declining business and a struggling neighborhood, says Mike McGeehan, who manages company operations in Springfield.It is survived by three corporate siblings in Springfield: the small funeral home and Eastlawn Cemetery at 2244 E. Pythian St.; the funeral home and White Chapel Memorial Gardens at 5234 State Highway EE; and the funeral home and Rivermonte Memorial Gardens at 4500 S. Lone Pine Ave.Although it still has a family name, it has been decades since Klingner-Cope was a family-owned business, says McGeehan, who has been in Springfield 2½ years.In the late 1990s, the Klingner family, which had started the business on Commercial Street in 1909, sold to a national funeral corporation, which in turn sold it to a second corporation, which in 2011 sold to Stonemor, a national "deathcare" company based in Pennsylvania.Cope was added to the name in 2003. Manager Lenny Cope never had an ownership interest, McGeehan says.Julie Creach, 62, of Rogersville, is the great-granddaughter of company founder John Wesley Klingner.“There's a lot of history, and I hate to see it go," she tells me. "But I understand the reasons why."She briefly lived with her family in an upstairs apartment at the funeral home."Dad went off to embalming school," she says. "When he returned, we moved to a bigger place."Her father, John Bennett Klingner Jr., died in 2013 and none of his three children —  all girls — went into the business full time. Their mother, Jane, is alive but has difficulty remembering, Creach says.For a history of Klingner-Cope, Creach referred me to a News-Leader story by freelance writer Donna Baxter in 2009, the year the business celebrated its centennial. Baxter had  interviewed John Bennett Klingner Jr. and Cope.At that time, according to the story, the company had provided 25,000 funerals.The J.W. Klingner Undertaking and Embalming Company...

Read our complete obituaries in The Herald-Dispatch on Saturday and at www.herald-dispatch.com.The following obituaries have been provided by local funeral homes. Read our daily updates at 12:30, 2:30 and 4:30 p.m., and our complete obituaries in The Herald-Dispatch on Saturday and at www.herald-dispatch.com.MARIE BARNETT, 105, of Pecks Mill, W.Va., widow of Troy Barnett, died Aug. 11 at Trinity Healthcare Servies. She was an employee of the Logan Banner. Service will be 10 a.m. Monday at Evans Funeral Home and Cremation Services; burial at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Visitation will be at the time of service Monday.TONY BILITER, 41, of Greeneville, Tenn., formerly of Majestic, Ky., died Aug. 11. Honoring service will be noon Monday at Barrenshee Church of God; burial at Buddy Mounts Cemetery. Visitation will be 6-10 p.m. Sunday at the church. www.chambersfuneralservices.comMICHAEL RUSSELL BLAKE, 37, of Huntington, died Aug. 11. He worked for Murphy Elevator Company. Service will be 1 p.m. Sunday at Wallace Funeral Home and Chapel; burial at Ridgelawn Memorial Park. Visitation will be 6-8 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home. www.timeformemory.com/wallaceJOSEPH BOZZAY, 92, of Huntington, died Aug. 5. Service will be 11 a.m. Monday at Wallace Funeral Home and Chapel; burial at White Chapel Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hospice or the charity of one's choice. www.timeformemory.com/wallaceJAMES RONALD BURTON, 52, of Huntington, died Aug. 10 at St. Mary's Medical Center. Service will be noon Monday at Chapman's Mortuary; burial at White Chapel Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service. www.chapmans-mortuary.comDORIS TOMLINSON CHITTUM, 91, of Huntington, widow of John Chittum, died Aug. 12 at Woodlands Retirement Community. Service will be 11 a.m. Monday at Klingel-Carpenter Mortuary; private interment service will follow. Visitation will be two hours prior to the service. Contributions can be made to BHUMC of the charity of one's choic...