A Family Calling to Serve Families

1974

Long before there was a Jenkins Funeral Home, there was a 16 year old boy sitting in his family’s home on Christmas Eve in 1974, watching his mother grieve the sudden loss of his father. When funeral director Gene Freeman arrived, Carl Jenkins watched him quietly kneel beside his mother, take her hand and somehow bring comfort into an impossibly difficult room. Carl would later recall that moment as the experience that first drew him toward funeral service.What began in that living room became a lifelong calling. Carl studied funeral service at Fayetteville Technical Community College and later earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from North Carolina Wesleyan College. His career took him from Fayetteville to Statesville, Hickory and eventually Newton, gaining experience with different communities and families along the way.

2004

Jenkins Opens its Doors

In 2004, Carl and Lori Jenkins took the next step and opened Jenkins Funeral Home & Cremation Service, building a funeral home around a straightforward idea: families should receive professional white glove care from people who are personally invested in the community they serve. Twenty years later, the Catawba County Chamber commemorated that beginning by recreating the Jenkins family's original ribbon cutting in the same location where it had taken place two decades earlier. 



2013

Son Joins Family Business

The next generation officially joined that mission when Ben Jenkins came into the family business full time in 2013 as a licensed funeral service professional. What began with Carl and Lori became a second-generation family firm, carrying forward the same emphasis on personal service while continuing to modernize the way families are cared for.

 Jenkins Funeral Home itself has grown dramatically along with the families it serves. The Newton campus now encompasses more than 15,000 square feet (The largest Funeral Home in Catawba and surrounding areas), including the Jenkins Chapel, Celebration Center, cemetery, columbarium and outdoor pavilion. The property has been expanded over the years specifically to give families more choices in how they gather, remember, celebrate and say goodbye.

Today, more than 400 families each year call upon Jenkins Funeral Home during one of the most difficult moments of their lives. Yet the principle behind the business remains remarkably close to what Carl witnessed as a teenager: funeral service is ultimately about one person being present for another person when they need help most. 

Buildings have grown. Services have changed. Another generation has joined the family business. But the purpose has remained the same.

Our family is here to care for yours, with compassion, professionalism and the personal accountability that comes from putting our own name on everything we do.

Please call us any time of the day, any day of the week, for immediate assistance or to pre-plan. 

You have many choices in our area, therefore we strive to be number one.

Give us the opportunity to prove it.