It grew from a single vehicle to a fleet of four (4) radio dispatched, oxygen-equipped ambulances which provided service around the clock 365 days of the year until 1967 when the City of Bowling Green took over the operation. In 1923 Hildreth and her father started the Deck Ambulance Service providing Bowling Green and Wood County with emergency and invalid ambulance service. It’s the people I serve that count to me.” “My life is one of helping people,” said Mrs. “She has always gone out of her way to help people, and they remember her for it.” “People stop to see Grandma even before they go into the chapel,” Kris said proudly. Eggleston still greets everybody who comes to her funeral home personally. In the last couple of years, her health has kept her from working as much as she would like, but Mrs. Everyone’s been very kind.”Īccording to Kris, Mrs. Her license reads “he, his, him.” “In those days, there wasn’t any ‘hers,’ smiled Mrs. “I entered a man’s world at a time when it was very unusual for a woman to become a licensed embalmer,” said Mrs. She got over that, however, and graduated second in her class. Eggleston said she was often embarrassed by her instructor’s references to the anatomy. Buck’s Mortuary School in Columbus, Mrs. Eggleston wiped her eyes dry and jokingly called herself an “old-time undertaker.” The only woman in her class at Dr. I live every one,” she said through tears. “I know how hurt you are inside when you lose someone. That’s all you could think about.” You never get used to death, not even after 55 years of service to grieving families and friends. “Used to be when someone died, you practically lived with his family for two or three days. “The really dedicated funeral homes are the family businesses,” said Mrs. Hanneman’s sons Kris and Kraig, and daughter Kathy, also are funeral directors associated with the funeral home. Deck, started the Deck Funeral Home on East Wooster Street in Bowling Green 66 years ago. Eggleston, who was 75 on March 12, has held her embalmer’s license for 55 years. “There wasn’t anyone else to help Papa,” smiled Mrs. She also would set up the black drapes, chairs and the rest of the funeral paraphernalia in the deceased person’s home before the service began. Hildreth Deck Eggleston helped her Papa get the horses into harness so they could pull the funeral hearse.
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