Showalter Blackwell Long Funeral Home

Celebrate your loved one

Our Connersville funeral home designs personalized funeral services that easily integrate with our tradition for care and offer our families additional comfort. Meaningful touches include displaying personal items on memory tables, customizing high-quality stationery, using picture boards during the service and creating memory baskets for visitors to record personal stories or condolences.

We will help you write an obituary, craft a eulogy and customize a playlist that reflects your loved one's interests. We can arrange a release of balloons or doves or butterflies. We can route a funeral processional past significant locations or work with a 3rd-party caterer to create a catered reception with favorite foods or family recipes. There are literally hundreds of ways we can make a funeral special.

Our funeral home’s features

Showalter Blackwell Long Funeral Home is tastefully decorated and comfortable. We showcase local artists as a way to support our community. While visiting, you'll see a walnut grandfather clock made by a former teacher, Frank M. Butler; 5 paintings by Simon Risch of automobiles made in Connersville; and paintings by Gladys Hassler, Luana Himelick, Ione Nutty, Mary Lake, L.J. Smith and Martha Callaway.

Our decor also features a pencil drawing of the Fifth Street Covered Bridge by Gladys Freeland, covered bridge drawings by F.A. Bullard and D.G. Gray, and a sculpture by Dan Parker. Recent acquisitions include works by Cheryl Johnson, Dee Boehmer, Sue Dice and Nedra Gillum.

Technology amenities include Wi-Fi, device charging stations and selfie sticks. We can design a multimedia tribute to play during the service and broadcast it via closed-circuit video throughout the funeral home and record a funeral service so that it can be shared with friends and family who are unable to attend.

Plan-ahead funeral, cremation options

Showalter Blackwell Long Funeral Home is a recognized leader in helping Whitewater Valley area families plan their funerals ahead of time. Planning a funeral in advance allows you to make important decisions without heightened emotion and alleviates the burden for your family at an emotional time. Families who choose this option do not have to worry about inflation or future cost increases.

Whether you need to make arrangements in advance for yourself or a loved one, or you need to plan immediately, we’re here to serve you. Please contact us for information about funeral and cremation services services in Connersville and Fayette County.

History

In 1900, Charles Myers opened his own funeral home in what was then the heart of downtown Connersville. His funeral business was in the 400 block of Central Avenue in the Oddfellows building, which is now occupied by the Connersville News-Examiner. Myers Funeral Home remained in its original location for more than 30 years. In 1932, Charles purchased the Andrew Frazee residence at 920 Central Avenue, adapting it to the needs of the funeral business while carefully preserving the home's original Victorian beauty.

A new era of service

Charles died in 1942, and the funeral service business passed to his daughter, Dorothy, and her husband, Otto J. Pippin. In 1960, Glenn R. Clark and his wife, Margaret, purchased Myers Funeral Home. Assisting Glenn were George F. Jeffries, John C. Chapman and Andy Kenworthy. After Glenn's death in 1970, his brother, Robert Clark, moved into the funeral home to continue providing care to the Connersville community.

John L. Showalter, a Connersville native and graduate of Indiana College of Mortuary Science, was eager to own a funeral home in his hometown. In 1968, he and his wife, Judith, purchased Baker Funeral Home, with locations in College Corner and Liberty, and later Fosdick Funeral Home in Liberty.

How we continue our legacy

In 1978, John and Judith formed Showalter-Blackwell Funeral Chapels with John's long-time friend and associate J. Michael Blackwell and his wife, Sandy. They purchased Myers Funeral Home in April 1978. A year later, Joel D. Long, originally from the Orange community in Fayette County, moved back to Connersville with his wife, Vickie, to take a position as a licensed funeral director with Showalter-Blackwell, Myers Chapel. In 1998, Joel's commitment to the business and community was recognized, and the name changed to Showalter Blackwell Long Funeral Home, Myers Chapel. Today, we are best known in Connersville as Showalter Blackwell Long Funeral Home.

It is an honor and privilege for us to serve the Fayette County community. We have always pledged to operate the funeral home according to the wishes of the families we serve, and we will continue to respond to their needs.