Selma Funeral Home has completed purchase of Pineview Memorial Gardens on the west side of Highway 22E in Valley Grande. Selma Funeral Home is located just south of the cemetery.

Co-manager Karl Jones made the announcement. The purchase from a holding company based in Portland, Ore., was closed on May 18, according to Jones.

The negotiations have been underway

since last December when five individuals

purchased Selma Funeral Home from Specialized Commercial Lending based in Covington, La., and formed a limited liability partnership.

Pineview will also be operated as a limited liability partnership but as a separate entity with the same owners.

The owners are Karl and Deborah Jones; George and Faye Jones, Karl Jones’ parents; and Sherry Franklin, whose husband Curt also is on staff of the funeral home.

According to Karl Jones, whose wife Deborah is co-manager, the advantage to area residents will be local ownership – as well as the funeral home.

“If someone has a question or a problem, there will also be someone here

for them to talk to,” he said.

Jones also emphasized the continuity in operations at Pineview. “The only difference is that we have increased the full-time staff from one to two, with me helping out as a third member of the team as needed. We dig the graves

and set the markers on the graves.”

The combined staff of the funeral home and cemetery is nine, according to Jones.

“We do want the public to know,” he said, “that between now and Aug. 31 we have a special offer to those wanting to purchase cemetery lots – two for the price of one.”

Karl Jones previously worked for funeral homes in Bessemer and Selma, before going to work for Pioneer Electric where he was employed for nine years before participating in the purchase of Selma Funeral Home last December.

His wife, Deborah, is employed by Bush Hog but, according to Jones, spends about as much time working at the funeral home nights and evenings as at Bush Hog.

George Jones and his wife, Faye, have returned to the Selma area

at the end of 48 years as a Southern Baptist minister.

He retired from Mountainview Baptist Church in Huntsville and served a previous pastorate at then-Central Baptist Church in downtown Selma which has since relocated to Valley Grande and is now known as Valley Grande Baptist Church.

Curt Franklin and his wife Sherry moved to Selma in 2002 to complete construction of Selma Funeral Home which had been begun by the previous owner.

Both are involved in the operations of Selma Funeral Home.

Karl Jones said that some new directions for the cemetery are being explored. Pineview was originally designed – and has continued – as a memorial garden with flat markers, with a designated area for raised markers, he said.

He also said that the prospective widening of Highway 22 will have no effect on the funeral home and the cemetery. This past year an entryway was constructed to provide direct access to the funeral home.

That addition will simply be paved over by the widened Highway 22, he said.

Reflecting on the current situation at Selma Funeral Home/Pineview Memorial Gardens, Jones said. “Things are good and we’re happy to be here. We are so blessed.”