ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It has been a staple in the St. Petersburg community for nearly a hundred years, but now it is shuttered.
McRae Funeral Home closed its doors last year, leaving some clients wondering, what’s going to happen to the preneed agreements laying out their plans for future services.
What You Need To Know
McRae Fiuneral Home opened in the late 1920’s
It was one of the first Black owned funeral homes in the city
Family members who ran the funeral home say they closed their doors after damage from Hurricane Milton
Some clients say it came as a shock. People we talked to said they found out about the McRae Funeral Home closing when they drove by the “for sale” sign out front of its building on MLK Street South.
The McRae name has been synonymous with funeral services in South St. Pete for nearly a century.
“These are the individuals that started the funeral home,” she said. “That’s Mae McRae and Edward McRae,” she said. It’s the kind of history that will live on forever, even if the business doesn’t.”
Inside the now closed funeral home, the pews, gospel CDs and the tissue for tears on top of the organ, are all right where McRae said she left them last year when they officially closed their doors.
“I’m a little emotional about it. Yeah, it does make me sad,” McRae said.
It’s the end of almost 100 years of offering funeral services to the community. It’s a decision McRae says was a difficult one for her family to make.
“Milton came along and did some pretty extensive damage. And I just looked at it like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ The sign came down. In fact, it stayed in the yard for about two weeks. And the sign came down, the roof, the shingles were coming off. It just overwhelmed me,” she said.
McRae explained how she married into the family decades ago. And she ran the family-owned funeral home for years along with Carolyn Wynn and March Bell. But at 80 years old and in need of a break, she said it was time to put her work there to rest.
“It was kinda getting in the way of my retirement. I was basically in here for about 12 years working it. My children actually own it,” she said.
The closure leaves some wondering what happens now, especially for those with preneed or pre-planned funeral arrangements. Wynn said almost a year later, she is still getting calls about it.
“There’s still a lot of people that still don’t know that McRae is closed. Because when you get prearrangement cases when somebody passes, and unfortunately with me being on call 24-7, some of them kept my personal number after the phones got shut down and then they would call me,” Wynn said.
According to a representative from the state’s Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services that regulates funeral homes, funeral homes aren’t required to give notice that they’re closing.
McRae said she understands that for some, the closure may have come as a surprise.
“I understand that the word is not too good about us having closed without having some formal closing. We did what we had to do on the part of the state,” she said.
She is recommending that people reach out to different funeral homes to ask if they will honor their agreements. Just like McRae Funeral Services did for so many years when other funeral homes closed.
WITH FUNERAL HOME CLOSED, WHAT’S NEXT?
A historic funeral home in South St. Petersburg closed its doors and now it has some people concerned about their final wishes going forward. Especially for people with pre-planned funeral arrangements there. Many want to know if the plans they made years ago for their last wishes are still going to be valid.
It’s a question asked by St. Pete resident and City Council member Deborah Figgs-Sanders. She said her family wanted to know what happens next, after the closure of McRae Funeral Home.
“We’ve used McRae for years. My stepdad was here, friends were here, my mother had their directions here. I had my directions that McRae would actually handle my funeral services as well,” she said.
Like most people, she said her family paid an insurance company for their preplanned funeral arrangements. Their plan was to have McRae handle their services, but they found out that wasn’t happening when they saw the for-sale sign in front of the business. She said they had to figure out next steps.
“Well, it wasn’t an easy process. First of all, they had to realize all of the plans they premade were no longer valid. Then they had to seek out another funeral home that they selected,” Figgs-Sanders said.
With the funeral home having such a positive reputation for nearly a century, she said she expected to find out in a more official capacity.
“Apparently, it had been closed for a while, and I thought it was because of damage from the hurricane of course because there wasn’t a sign. But then as I drove by two or three months ago, I saw a sign and said not only is it closed, it’s now for sale,” she said. “It’s a huge conversation but the immediate need right now is for those that have policies here, to be informed of, we’re no longer here, we’re selling the facility, but these are some of your options.”
Even with the lack of notification, Figgs-Sanders said she can still appreciate the funeral home’s legacy. “It makes me smile and I know that’s a strange answer because it’s a funeral home, you’re grieving, you’re saying goodbye. But the name of the McRae funeral home has been a pilar in the city of St. Petersburg for years,” she said.
According to state regulators, funeral homes aren’t required to give notice that they’re closing. When they do close and clients need more information, they can contact the Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services.
Longtime funeral director Irvin Sanchez, who owns Sanchez Rehoboth Mortuary in St. Pete, said there are plenty of options for families like Figgs-Sanders.
“Whoever does the work is the one that gets paid,” he said. “You signed up with McRae and McRae is no longer around, you can say, ‘Well, Mr. Sanchez you know, well, I have a prearrangement with McRae would you honor that agreement, that contract as is?’”
Sanchez said for him and many funeral homes that answer is usually “yes”. The preneed or preplanned funeral agreements lock in the cost for things like caskets, memorial services and transportation.
“You have two options when it comes to funding your arrangements,” he said. “You can do a trust where the money goes into a bank account where a bank holds your money. What we do here, we do insurance, and the intent is that your funds are not sitting in a funeral home’s account.”
Years ago, Sanchez worked at McRae Funeral Home. He said it’s a major loss to the community, but a funeral home closing isn’t uncommon.
Meanwhile after her experience, Figgs-Sanders said she is considering hosting a course to educate the residents on preplanning funeral arrangements and estate planning.