1194 E Mount Morris Rd Mount Morris, MI 48458
About Us
In the same year the Great Depression began, Miles B. Martin and his wife, Mildred (Doyle) would open the Martin Family’s first funeral home in Mt. Morris, Michigan. The home would move twice in Mt. Morris between 1929 and 1934, eventually settling at its present location on East Mt. Morris Rd. During the 1930’s, Miles would also partner in opening two other funeral homes. With his brothers, he opened Martin Bros. Funeral Home in Flint and Hyuck and Martin Funeral Home in Clio. During World War II, at a time in which Miles could have been called up to the war efforts, Mildred became a licensed funeral director.
Miles and Mildred would have three boys and the oldest, Patrick, and youngest, Miles “Tom” would both go on to become funeral directors. When Pat and Tom were young, Miles’ cousin, Ray Martin, who worked at the funeral home in Mt. Morris, also took a sincere interest in funeral service, and he too, would go on to own Walker-Martin Funeral Home in Chesaning and Whelpley-Martin Funeral Home in New Lothrop.
In addition to working for his mom and dad at the funeral home, Pat would also go on to attend Michigan State University to study to become an architect. In the 1960’s, he founded Marwood Funeral Home in Burton, but eventually closed as he focused on work as an architect, while continuing to remain a licensed funeral director and helping in Mt. Morris. In the early 1990’s, and approaching retirement, Pat, along with his brother, Tom, and mother, Mildred, bought Blackburn Chapel in North Branch. After his death in 1998, Pat’s son, Kelly Martin, also a funeral director, would take over the funeral home in North Branch, running it alongside his wife, Susan. They still own and operate Blackburn Chapel, Martin Funeral Home.
After returning to America serving in the US Army in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, in the late 1960’s, Tom Martin, and his wife, Darnell, would officially purchase the funeral home in Mt. Morris from Tom’s parents in 1971. As the funeral home would grow in business through the 1980’s, Tom and Darnell saw the largest expansion of the property in the early 1990’s, adding over 15,000 square feet to the building, an elevator and doubling the garage size to accommodate eight vehicles. In 1996, they purchased both Clark Funeral Homes in Vassar and Fairgrove, expanding the family & footprint to cover five counties in mid-Michigan.
2006 would see the funeral homes in Mt. Morris, Vassar and Fairgrove change hands again, this time to Tom and Darnell’s son, Adam, and his wife, Jennifer. After spending the previous decade working alongside his father, Adam was proud to see the legacy of the Martin family’s history in funeral service continuing for yet another generation. In 2015, Adam and Jenni would oversee the purchase of and opening of their fourth funeral home in Grand Blanc.
Since 1929, the Martin family has amassed over 400 years of professional funeral service to the families in mid-Michigan. We are honored that even now, nearly 100 years later, we are still called upon to help families out during one of their greatest moments of need.
