Gregory W. Spencer Funeral Directors

A welcoming Fort Worth funeral home

Though some things have changed in our nearly 40 years in business, one thing has not: Gregory W. Spencer Funeral Directors prioritizes personal attention. With an understanding of the special care that families need after losing a loved one, our funeral directors offer unparalleled professional guidance and honor loved ones with dignity and respect.

Located on Miller Avenue in southeast Fort Worth, our red brick building is a comfortable place to plan a funeral or cremation. The recently remodeled chapel seats 200 guests and includes an organ, a modern sound system and monitors for a multimedia presentation. We can decorate the room any way you choose, turning the space into a nightclub or a barbershop, displaying a cherished hat collection or an artist’s watercolors. Start with a story, we’ll design something truly special from there.

Should you and your guests wish to linger after a service, a small hospitality room provides a place for coffee, tea and fellowship.

Personalized cremation services

Cremation is an increasingly common decision, but not everyone knows that there are many cremation choices. If you are interested in cremation, the funeral home team can explain the process and the various cremation options. From a direct cremation without a service or a witness to a full funeral service before or after the cremation and more, we help you understand this option.

Pre-plan a funeral at Gregory W. Spencer Funeral Directors

Planning a funeral ahead of time allows you to make clear-headed, stress-free decisions about the kind of service you’d like. When you pre-plan your funeral, you select the things that will tell your story best and relieve your family of the emotional and financial burden of planning for you. You also lock in today’s prices—something that inevitably saves money. Pre-planning discussions can sometimes be awkward, but we can help with hard conversations. A dedicated team member knows just how to explain your options and support you the whole way through.

Let us guide you

We pride ourselves on taking care of the details, and the passion we feel for our longstanding role in the area is evident in our work. Our founder was a beloved part of the Fort Worth community, and many of our team members have worked at the funeral home for more than 30 years. We are your friends and neighbors—and we always treat you that way.

At Gregory W. Spencer Funeral Directors, a member of our team is always available to take your call right away, day or night, and we welcome you to tour the funeral home. Please don’t hesitate to reach out, whether you are planning ahead or have an immediate need.

History

Funeral service was Gregory Wayne Spencer’s passion from a very young age. Relatives say he preached in his backyard and held funerals for birds, frogs and pets in his neighborhood. At the age of 9, he began attending funeral services at Baker Funeral Home, where he later worked washing funeral cars and as an usher.

A smart young man, Gregory graduated a year early from Green B. Trimble Technical High School and then petitioned the Texas Funeral Service Commission for permission to attend the Dallas Institute of Mortuary Science at age 17 (the required age at the time was 21). When he obtained his funeral director’s license two years later in 1975, he was the youngest funeral director in Texas. In 1978, he became an ordained minister and later founded The Church at Philadelphia in Fort Worth.

Gregory opened Gregory W. Spencer Funeral Directors in 1980. By the mid-1990s, his namesake funeral home handled about half of the funerals for Fort Worth’s black community—about 550 deaths a year—and Gregory attended every one. He earned a reputation as an innovator, a showman, and a tireless poet and composer.

At one time, the funeral home had two other locations. Gregory W. Spencer & Sons Funeral Directors at the McGowan Mansion and Gregory W. Spencer & Sons Funeral Directors at Cedar Crest, both in Dallas, are now closed. The original Fort Worth location carries on with the work of our generous founder, who died in 2003. He dedicated his life to funeral service and the community. We are proud to uphold that tradition as part of the Dignity Memorial network.