Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
In 1900, the town of Marlinton was officially incorporated, and Andrew Price was elected as its first mayor. At that time, the election was held with vocal votes. That continued until 1905, when the Australian ballot was adopted.
The year 1905 was a big year for the town. A plan to install a system of water works and electric lights was started and businesses were opening their doors to the public.
One of those businesses was Z. S. Smith Funeral Home – now VanReenen Funeral Home – on the corner of Ninth Street and Second Avenue.
It was the second funeral home to open in Marlinton. Before it, there was the Asbury Smith Funeral Home which was located next to the People’s Store across the bridge in Marlinton. It relocated in Hillsboro.
The Z.S. Smith Funeral Home was owned and operated by Zed Smith, and the funeral home included two barns – one for hay and one for horses.
Current owner Jim Smith knows some of the history of the funeral home, mainly stories passed down from owner to owner.
“Z.S. had a horse-drawn hearse,” Smith said. “The long white building used to be a barn; it’s where they kept all their hay. In the back, there was another barn and they kept the horses in it.”
There wasn’t much to the business at that time – the buildings were mainly for the buggy, horses, hay and an office. Most of the funeral services were done at the home of the deceased.
“Back then, you bought your casket at [C.J.] Richardson’s,” Smith said. “Then Z.S. went to the house to embalm the body – if you embalmed them. Some of them, they didn’t embalm. Some of them, you used what they called a cooling table. Almost everything was at the house.”
It wasn’t until around 1909 or 1910 that the funeral home started providing services at the business.
Z.S. took part of the barn and changed it into a viewing room. They also added space for an embalming room.
In 1930, Z.S.’s son, Clarence, took over as operator, and the business began to modernize, including the purchase of a motor vehicle hearse.
Clarence was married to Orda Hill, whom he lovingly and always referred to as Ms. Hill. She was a teacher at the Marlinton Graded School for many years.
Clarence was known as quite the jokester and always found time to pull pranks.
Smith remembered one story where Clarence sent out one of his employees for coffee and while he was gone, he had another man lay down on the table in the prep room and covered him with a sheet. When the employee came back, Clarence told him he had someone to prep.
“He went back there and the guy sat up,” Smith said. “They said there was a rubber hammer there, so [the employee] took that rubber hammer and hit him and said, ‘lay down there, you’re supposed to be dead.’ Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know. It’s one of the stories they told.”
Another story was about a time when Clarence was walking through town and noticed a brand-new car parked on the street. Three ladies walked up and marveled at the car, so Clarence told them to get in, and he would take them for a ride after he ran into the pool room for a second.
“He went in and went through the pool room, out through the barber shop, out the back door and came back to the funeral home,” Smith said. “Those ladies sat in the car and this traveling salesman who owned the car comes up and he keeps looking at those ladies sitting in his car.”
The salesman fetched the town cop and when the cop asked the ladies why they were in the man’s car, they said Mr. Smith was going to take them for a ride in his new car. When the cop explained that the car belonged to the salesman, they were not too happy.
“They went to the funeral home and Clarence ran into the prep room and locked the door,” Smith said, laughing. “That’s another one, I don’t know if it’s true or not.”
During Clarence’s time of operation, most of the supplies for the business came to town on the train, including caskets when coffins were no longer available at Richardson’s.
The coffins were the classic diamond or “body” shape, while caskets are a plain rectangular shape.
Despite his prankster ways, Clarence continued running the business under the family name until the 1960s, when Ivan VanReenen bought it and renamed it VanReenen Funeral Home.
“[Ivan] came to work for Clarence in 1959, and then in 64 or 67, he bought it,” Smith said.
VanReenen ran the funeral home until he retired in 1994, when Smith took over the operation; and then in 2024, Smith bought it from the VanReenen family.
Smith did not set out to be an undertaker. He started the job the way a lot of people start their first jobs – as a summer employee.
“I was in college and I’d been working for the state in the summers, down at Denmar, painting,” he said. “I worked for the rescue squad, and we had a lady that got killed in a car wreck. We brought her in and Ivan said, ‘what are you going to do this summer?’”
Smith told VanReenen about his plans to paint at Denmar and VanReenen said he should work for him instead. Smith told VanReenen he didn’t think he could do that.
“That was on a Friday or Saturday,” Smith said. “Monday morning about eight o’clock, the phone rang and Ivan said, ‘aren’t you coming to work today?’ I said, ‘I don’t think so.’ He said, ‘oh, come on down and try it.’
“Like an idiot I did,” Smith added with a chuckle. “That was fifty-three years ago.”
Smith earned a degree from Davis & Elkins College in marketing managing, with a minor in accounting. Then, he went on to mortuary sciences school in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“I’ve been licensed since 78, but I went to work for [Ivan] in 73,” Smith said. “I worked for him on and off while I was in college – on the weekends and summer.”
The funeral home has changed through the years, with extensions added to the building to accommodate the prep room, a chapel and restrooms. It did not, however, add a crematory, instead using the services of other funeral homes and crematories nearby.
“When we first started, we went to Keyser-Bryant down in Beckley,” Smith said. “It’s no longer in business. Then we went to Blue Ridge Funeral Home. We go different places. Now we use Wallace & Wallace down in Ronceverte.”
Since Smith has taken over ownership, he is working on remodeling the funeral home in parts, starting with the roof, which will be replaced in the next few months.
After 53 years in the business and seeing how the funeral home went from undertaker to undertaker, Smith is unsure what will happen when he is ready to retire.
“I don’t know right now,” he said honestly. “It’s not like it used to be. We have so many conglomerates now, big companies like SCI. They’re going around and buying up all the little funeral homes and then you’ve got to compete with them. It’s hard to do for an independent to compete with a conglomerate.”
Smith doesn’t have an apprentice or undertaker to take over at this time, but he doesn’t let that get to him. He continues to serve the community and its people the way he has for more than five decades.
When asked what the biggest funeral in the community was, Smith took a moment to contemplate and then remembered.
“The biggest one that I can think of since I’ve been here was Richard Barlow,” he said. “We had his visitation at the fire house. They blocked Second Avenue off from the red light up to Seventh Street and that whole area was full of people.
“I know I did 750 memorial cards,” he continued. “We had his service in the Presbyterian Church, and the church was completely packed. The overflow section was completely packed and there were people standing outside. Since I’ve been here, that’s probably the biggest we had.”
In a small county like this, it’s impossible not to know most of the people you work with at the funeral home. Smith said that the grief gets to you at times and that is why Ivan quit when he did.
“Ivan said, ‘I’ve quit burying people and started burying friends,’” Smith said. “In a small area like this, that’s what it is. Used to be, you knew about everybody. Of course, we’ve got a lot of people moving in that you don’t know, but it used to be you knew everybody that walked down the street. It makes a big difference.
“It gets harder all the time.”
It takes a strong will and a warm heart to be in the funeral services, and as Clar-ence proved, a sense of humor. While Smith has his moments of quiet reflection that are quite somber, he also finds time to laugh and make fun of himself.
“Somebody asked me one time why I got in the funeral business and I said, ‘because I’m stupid and had a strong back,’ and now I’m stupid and have a weak back,” he said, laughing.
When it comes down to it, Smith said he just tries to do good by people and give their loved ones the service they deserve.
“I try to treat people right,” he said. “That’s what I try to do.”
