Ward's Funeral Home will merge with Memorial Park Riverside Chapel funeral home

One longtime Gainesville funeral home is merging with another, their principals announced Tuesday.

Ward's Funeral Home will merge with Memorial Park Riverside Chapel. As a result of the merger, Ward's clients and services will transfer to Memorial Park Riverside, and Ward's building will be purchased by Asbury Chapel, a local church.

Ward's Funeral Home owner, John Wayne Abernathy, says the move was prompted by the fact that he recently became pastor of a church in Banks County. Ward's last day of business will be Friday.

"This spring, I was contacted by Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Lula," Abernathy says. "We were doing both the funeral home and the church, but it had become so much we just felt the best thing for us was to look for other activities."

Abernathy and his wife Wendy have operated Ward's Funeral Home since 2019. The funeral home has been in Gainesville for nearly 100 years, and Abernathy says the move will bring the business back to the family that founded it all those years ago.

Memorial Park Riverside Chapel is under the direction of Jerry Ward.

"It happened in the mid-20s. There was a Mr. Newton who was in the funeral business, and my grandfather bought it with him," Ward says. "Then, sometime in the 1930s, Mr. Newton left and the place became Ward's Funeral Home. Then it was run by my grandmother. My father and uncle were here and ran it until 1993."

Ward says it's an emotional step for him to see the business return to his family.

"It means a lot. It's something I grew up on. I started in the funeral business when I was 14 and grew up in it," Ward says. "It's pretty much everything I've done in my life, except for when I was in the restaurant business for 12 long years and then went back into the funeral business. It's what I know and what I feel I'm good at."

Abernathy said he has personally spoken with families for whom Ward's Funeral Home has provided services, and the feedback he has received has been mostly positive. He said he wants his clients to feel confident that their arrangements will be honored.

"We have been in prayer for a long time trying to find the best solution for your family and your family's wishes," Abernathy said. "We are confident that under our agreement with Memorial Park North, you are in good hands and we are ready to come and assist you upon special request. Our families are very important to us and we don't want disappointment."

Ward seconded those thoughts.

"We will continue what John Wayne laid down and what our family laid down - to provide personalized service," Ward said. "It's not just template service. We believe in individualized service, that every family is different and has different needs."

Asbury Chapel announced in a press release Tuesday that it plans to move into the building that formerly housed Ward's Funeral Home in the near future.

The Rev. Whit Martin, a Gainesville native and pastor of Asbury Chapel, and Charles Hudgins, chairman of the Asbury Board of Trustees, presented the project at the December 2023 church meeting, where church members voted and approved the purchase of the property.

"Our leadership has said from the beginning, 'Let's not get ahead of God,'" Martin said. "We prayed, we were patient, and God has blessed us with this amazing opportunity to serve Gainesville. We are honored to be among the residents of this vibrant downtown area."

Asbury Chapel held its first service on January 8, 2023, with 165 people in attendance. The church has grown steadily, welcoming 136 people. Services are held on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. in the Memorial Park Riverside Chapel until the move takes place.