Herr sells funeral homes

A family-owned funeral home has sold its metro-east business after a century and a half of service.

Robert Herr has sold his three funeral homes and cemetery to Pennsylvania-based Stonemor Partners. The Herr name will remain at the funeral homes in Collinsville and Caseyville and the name of Sunset Hills Funeral Home and Cemetery in Glen Carbon will also remain the same.

Herr has retired and will remain on staff as a consultant, said Paul Caldwell, regional vice president for the Levittown, Pa. company.

“I’m excited to be here,” Caldwell said. “We’re looking at ways to improve the business and think about how we can serve and what we can offer families during their difficult time.”

Ryan Zinke, who also will retain his position as funeral home manager under the new ownership, said the staff of 18 that has worked at Herr Funeral Home in Collinsville and Caseyville and Sunset Hills Funeral Home and Cemetery in Glen Carbon will also remain.

“Our service will remain the same and be by the same people,” Zinke said. “We will have the same caring staff that has been dedicated to taking care of our families in the same roles as they have been.”

Caldwell said those customers who have made pre-planned funeral arrangements and invested in the metro-east funeral home can be assured that their plans are still in tact.

“I think it’s important to understand that anyone who has pre-planned with us, all funds are still 100 percent invested,” he said. “Stonemor has agreed to honor all of those and the same is true for cemetery lots pre-planned. All funds invested and all pre-planned services will be honored. No action is necessary for those consumers that are pre-planned. They do not have to do anything and can rest assured knowing that when the time comes, Herr Funeral and Sunset Hills Funeral Home and Cemetery will be to serving their needs at that time.”

Zinke said several generations of the Herr family have worked at the funeral home since its founding in the mid-1800s in Belleville. Soon after the turn of the century, the family moved their business to Collinsville and opened at its present location at 501 W. Main St. in 1930.

The business expanded to a second funeral home in Caseyville in 1963.

Robert Herr purchased Sunset Hills Cemetery in Glen Carbon about 30 years ago and opened an adjacent funeral home in 2005.

Caldwell said Stonemor Partners has been a growing operation and has established funeral homes in several different states across the country. The Collinsville, Caseyville and Glen Carbon sites will be the first for the company in the greater St. Louis area.

This story was originally published August 11, 2015 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Herr sells funeral homes."