Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Horne's now under new ownership

Horne Funeral Home of Gurdon and Shackleford Funeral Home of Prescott are each under new ownership.

The new owners, Terry and Wendy Pharr of Hope, were on hand at both locations recently to meet the communities. The Pharrs also own and operate Herndon-Pharr Funeral Home of Hope after purchasing that business in May.

Horne has been a part of Gurdon for more than a half century. The history of the funeral home dates back to February of 1953 when Autrey and Bettye Horne opened the business. The Hornes later sold to the Madden Family of Ashdown, though the funeral home retained the name, Hornes.

Nothing will change at Gurdon except for the name, according to funeral director Edward McKinnon. McKinnon has been working at Horne Funeral Home for 34 years. He said the Pharr family will continue to offer funeral insurance and pre-arrangement policies.

The Pharr family currently resides in Shang Hai, China, as Terry is on a two-year contract working as chief operator for a retailing company. Wendy was in Prescott and Gurdon for the open houses and ribbon cuttings.

Scott Brown, Wendys brother, who has been in the funeral home business since 1983, will be the general manager of the Gurdon, Prescott and Hope funeral homes.

This is going to be good for Gurdon, said resident Peggy Roberts. But Im not going to tell them to be staying real busy.