OUR HERITAGE 

Thomas James Kearney began coming to Vancouver in 1905. He was still operating his General Store in Bonanza Creek during the Klondike Gold Rush, but on a visit to Vancouver Tom fell in love with a lovely young local girl by the name of Catherine O’Connor. Although a professional Opera singer by trade, Catherine also sang at her local church and in her spare time Catherine also helped her mother Brigit O’Connor help families lay out their deceased when a death occurred in the parish.

When an opportunity came to become an investor and then partner in the local funeral home Green Simon & Lamp; Co., Thomas took up the challenge. The struggling business needed more and more help and finally Tom moved permanently to Vancouver in 1908 and took over the business full time. Tom also bought out the partners becoming the sole owner.

In 1911, Thomas ordered the first motorized ambulances in Canada, from the Gardner Motor Works Company. Unfortunately however, his name was crossed out on the two order forms and the name Toronto Hospital was written over his. Tom received the first set of motorized ambulances delivered to Western Canada, a pair of handsome Pierce Arrows, reachable by dialing Fairmont 3.

Thomas and Catherine were married July 16, 1915 and had three children Ellen, Edmund and Francis. In 1927, Thomas was asked and agreed to become a partner in a second funeral company, the Columbia Funeral Chapel in New Westminster, B.C.

Tom ran the businesses successfully until an unfortunate fall forced him to retire in 1932. In the thirties times were hard and eventually the family lost both the New Westminster and the Broadway properties. Broadway was purchased from the bank by Thomas Chapman who opened Chapman Funeral Directors at 802 W. Broadway, and John Norman took over Columbia Chapel. This left the Kearney family with a phone number, but neither facility.

Young Frank left college and returned home to help rebuild the family business. His sister Ellen headed south to the California College of Mortuary Science where she and her dear friend Ruth Emerson became the first women ever to be licensed as funeral directors in California.

The family continued to serve families working through another close by funeral home, using their men and vehicles to assist. In 1944 the family bought a property at 8055 Hudson St. in Marpole. Tom died in 1942. The Kearney family were able to purchase another building on Broadway in 1954 and ran both the Broadway and Hudson St. locations until 1968, when Hudson street was sold.

Frank Kearney died suddenly in 1975, leaving Ellen ( Kearney) Crean and her two sons, Thomas and Michael to continue the family business.

In 1979 they repurchased Columbia Chapel, and in 1991 purchased S. Bowell and Sons from the Loewen Group Inc. In fact S. Bowell had been their former head office.

Today the Kearney family serves the Lower Mainland from four locations -- Vancouver, New Westminster, Surrey/White Rock, and now Cloverdale.

Three of Tom Kearney’s eight great- grandchildren have now begun to work for the family business, beginning its fourth generation.