Amigone Funeral Home<\/a> began in an era when funeral services were staged in the quiet confines of family homes. During those early years, Amigone existed in a handshake economy along Eagle Street in Buffalo; funeral services might be bartered in exchange for goods or other trade.\u00a0<\/p>\nAfter twenty-odd years of providing in-home services, Amigone built a standalone funeral home, Buffalo\u2019s first. Over time, the business grew from a neighborhood presence into a regional one, with an expansion plan led by Daniel\u2019s son, Anthony Amigone, Sr. Today, the multigenerational business has thirteen locations across Western New York.<\/p>\n
In recognition of this milestone anniversary, current president Anthony Amigone Jr. spoke about the business\u2019s longevity, his forty-five years as a funeral director, changing attitudes around loss, and embracing new technology.<\/p>\n
![\"Amigone3_touchup.jpg\"](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
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Photo from the Amigone family archives<\/p>\n
Forever Young: What\u2019s been Amigone\u2019s biggest change in the past 100 years?<\/p>\n
Anthony Amigone, Jr.: The biggest change probably was when we built our funeral home. It used to be that funerals were held in family homes. When we built our funeral home, the first in Buffalo, others followed us and built more of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So in those early days, you provided what we might now call \u201cpop-up\u201d funerals?\u00a0<\/p>\n
We used to have to take windows out to put a casket in someone\u2019s house, and we\u2019d bring the body in separately. We would bring in oriental rugs and what they call the casket bier: a stand to rest the casket on. We\u2019d bring torch lights, which were candles back then, and put them next to the casket. We would even embalm the person right in the house.<\/p>\n
Do you find the funeral atmosphere less formal now?<\/p>\n
The nomenclature\u2019s changed a little bit. You\u2019ll hear more people say \u201ccelebration of life.\u201d When someone\u2019s nice and old, and they\u2019ve had a good, long life, it\u2019s easier to say, quote-unquote: \u201ccelebrate and be in an upbeat mood.\u201d Then, there\u2019s sometimes where it\u2019s not that situation. We see the emotional extremes of funerals based on who passes and what their relationships were like.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m guessing you take your cues from the family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We give them options, and sometimes things that they might not even be thinking of, different ways to celebrate somebody\u2019s life. But the biggest thing that we do is we provide a place for people to come together and share. We are open to different possibilities. There\u2019s not one way to do it, and everyone has different opinions. Even within a family, we try to be aware that each individual may have different thoughts on what they want.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Photo from the Amigone family archives<\/p>\n
Other changes you\u2019ve seen over the years?<\/p>\n
The scheduling of events can be a lot different. It used to be somebody passed away, you\u2019d have a wake and funeral, and go to the cemetery all within a few days. Now, people are scheduling events months out and into the following year.<\/p>\n
Has technology changed your business?<\/p>\n
We try to stay current with it and how it can help us. Right now, AI can help us write an obituary or edit a picture that might not be in the best condition and bring it back to its original form. It\u2019s fascinating.<\/p>\n
It seems like you help people figure out how a loved one will be remembered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We help people make memories and recall memories. I always tell people who are getting ready to give a eulogy, \u201cTell people something that they don\u2019t know about your loved one.\u201d We encourage people to share memories about the person they loved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can you point to anything your father and grandfather did that set the company up for long-term success?<\/p>\n
The dignity, class, and grace instilled in all of us started with Grandpa. He passed those values on to my dad, on to me, and now we have the fourth generation coming up behind us.We\u2019re celebrating 100 years and can\u2019t believe how many companies are 100 years old this year. United Airlines, American Airlines, the Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Blackhawks. I could go on and on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You\u2019re in good company. That longevity probably speaks to having a well-run business over multiple generations.<\/p>\n
My father used to say this is a family tradition. We\u2019re so thankful that the community puts such trust in us, and it\u2019s our objective to serve them with everything we have.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From left: Caitlin Amigone-Zientara, Anthony P. Amigone Jr., Vincent J. Amigone, Vincent J. Amigone Jr., and Kristen Amigone-Sfeir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97784,97782,97788,113,97785,97789,97786,41943,97787,9,11,10,49,51,50,75588,97783,5178],"class_list":["post-250815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-amigone-funeral-home","tag-anthony-amigone","tag-anthony-amigone-jr","tag-buffalo","tag-daniel-amigone-sr","tag-forever-young-summer-2026","tag-funeral-director","tag-funeral-services","tag-in-home-services","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-sr","tag-this-milestone-anniversary","tag-western-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}