Last week’s fire (photo above) destroyed the funeral home that’s been a part of Jellico since 1910

By Charlotte Underwood

JELLICO, TN (WLAF)- After last week’s devastating fire that destroyed the historic Cox & Son Funeral Home in Jellico, co-owners George Hackler and Wilma Cox said the plan is to “rebuild or repair” depending upon what the insurance company determines.

“Either way, we will be fully back, it just depends on what the insurance company decides is better. In the meantime, we plan to set up temporary job site offices very soon and continue serving our community,” Hackler said. That location will be announced once it is set up.

Hackler said they also want the community and the county to know how thankful they are for the outpouring of support during this hard time.

“Despite the catastrophe, we are so thankful that no one was injured … it could have been so much worse. The phone has, as the old saying goes, rung off the hook since Wednesday evening from 8 am in the morning until 9 pm at night and there have been countless texts and emails, and we appreciate the support and the offers of help so much from the community and the county and region,” Hackler said.

After the fire, the calls began pouring in from as far away as Colorado and California and even Maui.

“There’s a fellow from Jellico, who is on his honeymoon in Maui, and he even called to express his sorrow, so it’s reassuring and comforting to us to know so many people care,” Hackler said.

Despite the fire, it’s been “business as usual” to a certain extent, with Mrs. Cox working out of her dining room and garage where all the records that were saved from the fire have been moved. Fortunately, her typewriter was saved as well, and she has been able to continue with work.

The phone calls are all being forwarded to Hackler’s cell phone, and he said they have been at the funeral home site most days since the fire occurred and have been “working out of the garage.”

“We do hope to be back soon and in the meantime several churches have offered their sanctuaries and several of our friends in the business, like Llewellyn Funeral Home here, Ellison Funeral Home in Williamsburg, O’Neil-Lawson in Corbin, Leach Family Funeral Home in South Campbell County, Green Hills in Middlesboro, Click Funeral Home in Knoxville and Patton Funeral Home, have offered their support and services,” Hackler said. Several embalming and transport services in the region have offered services as well.

“All of them have offered their support and anything they can do, so we’re still equipped to take care of business, not at our facility, but as long as it’s at a church or a school or some other venue, we can still take care of business like we would have,” Hackler said.

The funeral home has been a cornerstone of Jellico for years and in business since 1910.

Hackler recounted some of the history surrounding Cox & Son Funeral Home and the building it was located in. According to Hackler the building was most likely from around 1900, “give or take.”

It was formerly Ellison Funeral Home. “The Ellisons bought the building from Rachael Scott, according to the deed in August of 1956 and she had operated a tourist home, which is what we might call a bed and breakfast and she had operated that for a number of years before it was sold to the Ellison family. Prior to that, as we understand it, it had been a private residence,” Hackler said

The loss of the historical building has been hard, but one of the bright spots is that they were able to save many of the historical records from the fire.

Hackler has been at the funeral home since the late 1990s and said the funeral home gets calls about every week and sometimes every day from people requesting them to look up old records, a task they are “happy to do.”

“Thankfully, those are some of the records we were able to get out because the fire started at a more distant area from where we kept those records. We are thankful we got those records out to provide information for people for genealogy purposes and family history purposes and many things.”

Also saved was the old grandfather clock that is probably over 100 years old.

“So, there are many reasons to be thankful, though it is a very sad time as well. There are so many people that have used the funeral home over the years, and we’ve made so many friends over the years,” Hackler said.

Whether the funeral home gets completely rebuilt or repaired is up to the insurance company.

“We are still waiting on the insurance company to determine whether they want to repair or rebuild. It would seem like it would be a total loss, but either way, if it could be repaired, we love the building, the structure, the historical nature of it, we loved it, but at the same time, if we cannot do that and we have to completely rebuild, we will. There’s a lot of history with the building and with the funeral home and whether we’re in a new building or that building is repaired, we hope to continue being part of the history, Hackler said.

He wanted to say thank you once again to everyone that had reached out.

“We are so appreciative to our friends, neighbors, kinfolk near and far, people who have called from as far away as Hawaii, California, Colorado and points north and south, as well as the local people, many who have expresses their concerns and sorrow … it really reaffirms my faith in humanity, we could have operated a switch board, we’ve had so many calls of support and we appreciate that more than we can say,” Hackler said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 07/18/2024-6AM)

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