By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Lawrenceville has a new funeral home, its fifth. The county seat’s newest funeral facility is Byrd & Flanigan Crematory and Funeral Service. It is located at 288 Hurricane Shoals Road Northeast near the Gwinnett Fire Department headquarters. It opened on July 28, and has scheduled an open house at its location for September 18.
Its two namesake owners, both Gwinnett natives, have 50 years of combined experience in the funeral business. They are Keenan Byrd of Snellville and Michael Flanigan of Dacula. Both are graduates of the Gupton Jones College of Funeral Service in Atlanta. There are two full time and three part time employees of the business. Other staff members include Jordan Raper, Mike Franklin and Brian Cavoretto.
Byrd
Byrd, 50, besides his funeral service experience, operates Georgia Internment Service and Georgia Cemetery and Monument Sales. He is married to Stephanie, and the couple have three children, Harrison, 17; Stella, 15; and Amelia, 9. His parents are Charles and Loretta Byrd of Snellville.
Flanigan, 39 and a bachelor, began working in the funeral home business upon graduation from Dacula High, putting in time at R.T. Patterson in Norcross, Turner’s in Decatur, at Wages and Son, and working part time for his uncle in Buford at Flanigan Funeral Home. He also worked for 10 years as a member of the Gwinnett Fire Department. His parents are Harold and Ida Flanigan of Hog Mountain.
Flanigan
Flanigan says their goal was always to be in ownership in the funeral business. Three years ago he and Byrd began to work on that idea, thinking “If not now, when? So we took a leap of faith and began to find us a spot.”
One of the key features both wanted in their business was to have a crematory on site. “Three years ago Keenan and I started looking for a location,” Flanigan says. “We think we have the perfect location, on the side of town with no other funeral homes. And we listened to the public and found a location a distance from any residential subdivisions. We had no problems with the city in getting a permit.”
There’s a reason the pair wanted a crematory on site, since more and more deaths are resulting in cremation. In 2015, the National Funeral Director’s Association projected that the rate of cremation will exceed that of burials.
Byrd says: “In the last 10 years, around here it has gone to where approximately 70 percent of the funerals are now cremations.” There’s a reason. Byrd notes that the average funeral with burial now cost $6,000-8,000. For direct cremations with no funeral service, the price at Byrd & Flanigan is $895.
At the new funeral home, there is a 175 seat chapel, plus two visitation rooms and a reception room with amenities. Flanigan says: “If someone can’t attend a person’s funeral, they can view the services in our chapel through live streaming on our company’s web site. They can also view archived videos from the site.”
Other funeral homes in Lawrenceville include those operated under the names of Wages and Sons, Tim Stewart, Tom M. Wages, and Gregory B. Levett and Sons.
Follow Us