Valentine Funeral Home and Monument Works, located in Millerton, New York, is closing its doors this week, after 133 years in business. The current owner, Dick Valentine, took over in 1960; the business opened in March of 1875.

Valentine was prepared to sell the business, he said, and had a buyer lined up; he was making final preparations to close the deal. Then a month ago, the buyer backed out, leaving Valentine with no legal way to run the business. “By that time, all of my licenses expired and I just turned 74 and I didn’t want to start over again. I had a friend look into the legalities of it but then his wife got sick. I just can’t continue, there’s no sense any more. The hardest part is not the financial thing, it’s what will the people in town do now?”

The village of just under 1,000 is located near the NY-Mass-Connecticut border. The nearest funeral homes are now 10 to 20 miles away. Valentine hopes his son can keep the monument business open.

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The New York Times has an interesting short piece about an embalmer in NYC. In my time around the funeral industry, I had occasion to visit prep rooms, and occasionally see bodies in there. Never had the opportunity to observe an embalming procedure.