Strate Funeral Home

Personalized funerals

Our mission at Strate Funeral Home 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 are happy to deliver.

Want an afternoon ice cream social? Or maybe an evening wine and cheese gathering is a better fit. Were you thinking about a garden-themed funeral complete with a tea party and personalized seed packets as takeaways? If you can imagine it, we can make it happen.

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.

Lean on us

We are a member of the Dignity Memorial® network, and we understand losing a loved one is an emotional and difficult experience. At Strate Funeral Home, you receive not only the compassionate care you expect from a locally operated establishment but also the value you deserve from the largest network of funeral, cremation, and cemetery service providers in North America.

Please contact us if you need immediate assistance, or if you would like more information about our services. We are available 24 hours a day.

History

The Grand Coulee, Washington, location of Strate Funeral Homes opened in 1987, after the Strate family bought the former Grand Coulee Funeral Home from Orville Scharbach. That same year, the Strate family also purchased Bill Robertson Funeral Home in Wilbur. The oldest Strate Funeral Home is located on 10th street in Davenport.

Early years of Strate Funeral Homes

Strate’s Furniture and Funeral Home conducted its first funeral in 1929, for John Schmauder Sr., of Odessa, Washington. In many small towns of the 1920s and 1930s, furniture stores and funeral homes were under the same ownership and were operated together, and Henry H. Strate had added a funeral home to his furniture business the previous year. Eventually, the Strate family also operated an ambulance service. As the business grew and prospered, the funeral home was moved to its own building on First Street, between First and Marjorie avenues in Odessa.

Strate Funeral Home moves from Odessa to Davenport

After World War II, Henry’s older son, Glen, and his wife, Lela, took over the funeral business and moved it from Odessa to Davenport in 1954. Henry’s younger son, Lamar, assumed operation of the furniture business, which closed in 1967.

After Glen moved to Davenport, Merlin Traylor, who was the new hospital administrator, moved his family into the former Strate Funeral Home and continued the service.

In 1960, Glen and Lela bought the former Fred Campbell Home on 10th Street in Davenport, Washington. The house was moved back on the lot to make room for a parking lot and they reopened their funeral home 2 years later. By 1970, all of the preparations for funerals were moved to Davenport, so the property in Odessa was demolished. The site of the old Strate family home is now a parking lot, and the old funeral home is now a business that sells meat products, like the famous Odessa German sausage.

Strate Funeral Home expands

As the business grew, the Strate family bought 2 more funeral homes in 1987: Scharbach Funeral Home in Wilbur and Grand Coulee Funeral Home in Coulee, for a total of 3 funeral homes.

In 1992, Glen died. His son, Don, took over operation of the Strate Funeral Homes. Lela retired from the business in 1995 after more than 50 years of assisting both her husband and her son. Don retired from the business in March 2015.

Today, the 3 funeral homes still operate under the Strate Funeral Home name and are known for their excellent reputation, which they have held for more than 80 years.