Kane-Jerrett Funeral Homes

Our welcoming funeral home

At Kane-Jerrett Funeral Homes – North York Chapel, our modern, spacious facility offers a peaceful and comforting environment while providing families with exceptional service. Our staff is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Russian and Vietnamese.

Visitation rooms are named after North York landmarks, such as Willowdale, Lansing and Sheppard. Our reception lounge has new furnishings, and we are happy to offer catered receptions, so you can spend time with family and friends over snacks or a meal to share memories and comfort.

Personalized funerals

Our mission at Kane-Jerrett Funeral Homes is to help families create personalized funerals and memorials. This approach keeps us open to traditional religious rites as well as contemporary gatherings that deeply reflect a person's life. That means that whether you want a basic cremation with ashes scattered in a personally meaningful place, a funeral in our cozy chapel with cemetery burial nearby, or a modern celebration of life with live music, favorite foods and a send-off that expresses the passions of yourself or your loved one, we deliver.

Cremation services

Not everyone knows that there are many cremation options. If you are interested in cremation, the funeral home team can explain the process and different options. From a direct cremation without a memorial service or a witness cremation to a full funeral service before or after the cremation and more, we help you understand this increasingly common choice—and handle all of the cremation arrangements.

Please contact us if you need immediate assistance, wish to visit us or if you would like more information about our products and services.

History

The story of Kane-Jerrett Funeral Homes encompasses two dedicated families who spent decades building fine reputations for caring for grieving families in Toronto. It dates back to the mid-1930s and continues today under the Dignity Memorial name.

The Jerrett family

Jack Jerrett dreamed of a career that would allow him to serve people in a meaningful way; he wanted to be a funeral director. At age 18, Jack began an apprenticeship with Speers Funeral Home on Dundas Street. There, he received his funeral director’s license. At 23, he became one of the youngest funeral directors to purchase his own funeral chapel. With the help of friends and family members, including his future wife, Jack bought the former Nash Funeral Home at 1141 St. Clair Ave. W. in Toronto in 1937.

Although the funeral chapel was part of Jack's dream, the early growth and success of the business was very much a family effort. Jack's parents, John and Alice, sold their home and trucking business in order to join him in funeral service. Frances Pauline Fritz joined the firm after she and Jack got married in 1939. She was among the first group of licensed female funeral directors in Canada; she got her license in 1942.

The business prospered, and in 1954, Jack purchased the former Bennett Funeral Home at 4661 Yonge St. in North York, then known as Lansing. In 1965, he opened the Scarborough Chapel at 660 Kennedy Road, on the site of a former mushroom plantation.

In 1967, tragedy struck. Jack died when he crashed his plane while trying to land at the Toronto International Airport. His death came only a year after his father died and less than a year before his mother’s death. Long-time employee Bill Stephenson helped sustain the business through this difficult time, and Jack's son, John, subsequently joined the business full time in 1968.

The operation continued to do well, and in the fall of 1993, the new North York Chapel at 6191 Yonge St. was opened to replace the building in Willowdale and to better accommodate the needs of the diverse and growing Toronto community.

In 1999, the Jerrett funeral homes, including Jerrett Life Celebration Centre, which opened in 1996 as York Family Funeral Centre, joined the Dignity Memorial family.

The Kane family

Meanwhile, another family was working to establish themselves as a funeral provider in the Toronto area.

In 1950, Robert Kane and his wife, Gwendolyn, acquired a funeral home only a few blocks away from Jack’s first location. Robert was a funeral director, and Gwendolyn was a nurse. They called their business R.S. Kane Funeral Home, and the newly married couple settled in with Robert’s parents in the house at the northwest corner of Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue.

As they grew into funeral service, they also began growing their family. Soon, three generations of Kanes occupied the home, as was the tradition of funeral businesses at the time. In 1953, the Kanes started an ambulance service. The community depended upon them in the hardest of times, and they were beloved in the community.

The Kane family lived at their funeral home from 1950 to 1963, when they moved out and renovated the location to better serve families who’d lost loved ones. The couple also added two more children to their own family, for a total of seven.

John Kane is the oldest of the siblings. He loved growing up around his parents’ business and began working there in high school. Eventually, he became a funeral director with a passion for caring for families and reputation for serving others as if they were his own family. He worked hard alongside his parents, always innovating and upholding a standard of excellence.

When Robert passed away in 2000, John took over. He owned and operated R.S. Kane Funeral Home for another two decades. In 2019, R.S. Kane Funeral Home became part of the Dignity Memorial family and Kane-Jerrett Funeral Homes was born.

The funeral home that once stood at 6150 Yonge Street is no longer, but just 3 kilometers north, in Thornhill, Kane-Jerrett is serving families with compassion and attention to detail.

John can still be found at the funeral home at 8088 Yonge St. His brother, Martin, is also there. They’re part of a team who continues to build on the business Robert and Gwendolyn started more than 70 years ago. They’re upholding the legacy of Jack and Frances, too.