95-year-old business allows Barfield/Best family to serve others

The motto of Garris Funeral Home is: “Sincere and personal service since 1929.” Yes, 1929.

When asked to account for how Garris has stayed in business for 95 years, Ty Best immediately answers with one word: “God.”

His mother, McKale Barfield Best, quickly adds, “A lot of prayer.”

Ty is the 32-year-old grandson and McKale the 60-year-old daughter of Garris Funeral Home owner Nannie Barfield, 92. Recently, the three sat down to talk about the business’ almost 100-year history.

The funeral home was founded in 1929 by L.E. Garris (originally from Ayden) across the street from its current location at 812 S. Center St. The buildings that currently house the business — a two-story, white, cinder-block structure and a one-story, red brick building — were built by Garris in 1931 and 1964, respectively.

Around 1939, Garris opened a second location in Fayetteville, and at that time, he hired a local pastor, the Rev. W. R. Wallace to manage the Mount Olive location; he also employed a man named Robert Brimmage as the embalmer.

In 1950, Walter Barfield, Jr. began working at the funeral home, which would eventually become a family business for him, his wife, his two daughters and his grandson.

Walter graduated from Carver High School, which sits just a block behind the funeral home. McKale recounts a light-hearted story told by one of Walter’s friends: “He said Daddy graduated, walked right across the street, and came to work while everybody else was partying.” Walter earned his funeral director license in 1960, purchased the funeral home (in partnership with Wallace and Brimmage) in 1968, and became sole owner in 1992.

Throughout his career, Walter Barfield set a high standard for hard work and dedication. McKale recalls that his annual vacation always consisted of just one Sunday in June, when he gathered his entire family at Jones Lake for the day.

During the last five years of his life, Walter became sick and required 24-hour care, yet “he was still manning the funeral home from his recliner,” McKale remembers. “He’d call you throughout the day, wanting to know what was going on, was everything alright, if you met a family, how was the family, when was the service.” He died in 2008.

McKale, according to her mother, inherited her father’s devotion to the funeral home. “She’s like her daddy,” Nannie says.

McKale admits this is, indeed, the case, saying she comes to the funeral home every day of the week, even if just to walk through and make certain nothing is amiss. It was not what she envisioned for herself when she was growing up, though. “I was going to be a nurse,” she says. To achieve that goal, she started studying at North Carolina Central University in Durham, but after her freshman year, her father asked if she’d like to work in the office at Garris during her summer at home. “I said, ‘OK,’ and I’ve been here since I was 19,” she notes. That was in 1983, and she earned her funeral director license in 1988.

The summer she started, McKale recalls quickly falling in love with what she was doing. “I liked working with the families,” she notes. “That was something that I enjoyed. When I say ‘enjoyed,’ it was more so being able to assist them during one of the most difficult times of their lives, and if I could take just a little bit off of them, then that was rewarding for me.”

The year after her daughter joined the business, Nannie Barfield left the Duplin County School System, where she’d worked as a teacher and speech pathologist, and came to work at the funeral home, as well. She became a licensed funeral director in 1985 and took over ownership of the business when her husband died.

Walter and Nannie’s other daughter, Carnice Barfield-Pettit, also worked at the funeral home (as an embalmer) until her death in 2006. Like the rest of her family, Carnice gave her heart and soul to Garris Funeral Home. McKale shares this story about her sister, who was diagnosed with cancer and taken to Raleigh by their mother for treatment. “After she got out of chemo, she went to Crabtree [Valley Mall] and was looking clothing for a lady whose service we were handling. She was trying to find that right outfit…She walked up and down that mall ‘til she found what she was looking for. My sister was very meticulous.”

McKale’s son Ty represents the family’s youngest generation in the business, and like his mother before him, it wasn’t always a certainty that this would be his life’s work. After graduating from Spring Creek High School, he was contemplating his next steps when, at his grandmother’s urging, he enrolled at North Carolina A & T in Greensboro to pursue a degree in Agriculture Economics.

“I wanted him to do well and make a good decision,” Nannie says of nudging her grandson toward A & T.

And, once again, in an experience similar to his mother’s, Ty came home from college on a break (for him, it was Thanksgiving of his freshman year) and started working at the funeral home — and never stopped. But Ty’s first years at Garris were very much part-time — just weekends and school breaks — because, despite knowing he planned to make a career at the funeral home, he decided to complete his studies at A & T, reasoning that a degree in Agriculture Economics would serve him well in eastern North Carolina as a “fall-back plan.”

Ty graduated from A & T in December 2013 and moved to Atlanta the following March to attend Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service, becoming a Funeral Service Licensee (meaning he is licensed for both funeral directing and embalming).

Ty, who insists that God is to be credited with his family sustaining its business over the decades, also notes the importance of having “a loyal foundation of clientele.” He goes on to note: “We thank them for always entrusting Garris Funeral Home…This could not be possible without the Lord and without them.”

In addition to a loyal clientele, Ty, his mother, and grandmother also have high praise for the nine part-time staffers employed by the funeral home, noting that they are key to making services run smoothly.

Of running a funeral home, McKale says, “It’s nothing that you take lightly. Just like you would want the very best for your family, you give that to their family.”

“We celebrate someone’s life,” Ty adds. “You let us know what you want; if it’s within legal means, we’ll make it happen.”

Garris Funeral Home’s willingness to accommodate families’ wishes was proven during the height of Covid 19, when, for the first time in its history, its staff conducted services in non-traditional places like Cliffs of the Neuse State Park, by a lake, and in a park.

One aspect of running a successful funeral home that people may not give much thought to is the “business side” of the business. Ty points out that inflation has caused the funeral home’s costs to increase but he notes that salaries (at the funeral home) have not increased, nor have the insurance policies clients use to pay for funerals. In a small town, he observes, a business is limited as to how much of the rise in costs it can pass along to clients.

Despite challenging economic times, McKale insists, “Even though costs have increased, you still try to serve and give your families the best that you can give, so that their loved one’s celebration will be something that’s memorable.”

This determination to do what they feel is best for their clients can come at a personal cost. “It’s not a 9-to-5 or 8-to-5 [business],” McKale points out. “Sometimes you have to miss birthdays or family events, depending on what’s going on…You may have plans, but they can change on a dime.”

“But,” she emphasizes, “that’s when you have to love what you do.” She, Ty, and Nannie do love what they do, and they’re hoping to pass along their love of the business to the next generation. Ty has three young children, and when asked if he thinks any of them will continue with the family business, he replies confidently, “I’m sure one of ‘em will do it,” to which Nannie nods in agreement.

And when that fourth generation takes the reins, there will be no need to change a slogan that already says it all: “Sincere and personal service since 1929.”