Cobb Funeral Home back under local ownership

Cobb Funeral Home is now under new ownership and direction by business partners who are anything but new to the funeral home business.

Cobb Funeral Home, located at 603 W. Main St., was recently purchased by business partners Billy Curl and Walter Jordan after several months of negotiations. Cobb had been owned by a company out of Hot Springs since 2003, but Curl and Jordan, who have known one another for more than 25 years, having served together as pilots in the National Guard, thought it was time to bring Cobb back to local, on-site ownership and direction.

After graduating high school at Newport in 1984, Curl went to mortuary school in Memphis and was able to get a job working at Memphis Funeral Home where he said he received a large portion of his funeral home experience, all while still serving part time in the National Guard.

Jordan, who grew up in Greenwood, Miss., has spent most of his life around the funeral home business with his family owning a funeral home in Mississippi. Jordan was a member of the Mississippi National Guard where he served as a helicopter pilot.

Both men have spent almost 30 years serving their respective states and country, including volunteering with their local sheriff's departments as pilots, and are now looking forward to bringing that same attitude of service and dedication to Mississippi County, and Blytheville in particular.

"We believe in Blytheville," Curl said. "This town has a lot of potential with the interstate and railroad and the river being right here. Eventually, some of these industries are really going to catch on to that and this city is really going to grow. This is a great place to live and we want to be a part of that."

With Curl growing up in Newport and Jordan being from the Mississippi Delta, the two said they are familiar with the Delta's challenges and benefits, saying, "We aren't scared of the Delta."

Cobb is undergoing a great deal of remodeling with the new owners, both to the building and to the company's policies. Curl said the business is looking at new ways to work with clients in financial need, adding that no one should ever have to worry about not being able to bury a loved one because of financial issues.

"A funeral doesn't have to cost $10,000. There are things we can do and ways we can work with our customers so that they don't have to worry about something like that in a time of great loss."

For more information call 870-763-4431.

cpinkard@blythevillecourier.com