(This article first appeared in the September print edition of the Hendersonian.)
On Sept. 19, 1926, a large ad appeared in the Gleaner & Journal announcing the formal opening of the Otis A. Benton & Co. funeral home at 17-19 S. Main St.
It was, the firm said, “in keeping with a city such as we believe Henderson is destined to be.”
A century later, what is now Benton-Glunt & Tapp Funeral Home is quietly observing the 100th anniversary of the founding of its business.
How the business evolved over a century isn’t a simple story. And while the Benton-Glunt and Tapp funeral homes operated for generations as entirely separate businesses, they followed a curiously parallel path.
Early undertakers here
In 1879, Evansville native William H. Klee moved to Henderson and would buy out the Schaeffer undertaking firm on South Main Street opposite Central Park. Klee grew the business, expanding the undertaking operation at 17-19 S. Main St. and, in 1899, building the handsome Queen Anne-style home next door at Washington & Main for his residence.
Only the firms that merged in 1908 to form Rudy-Rowland funeral directors, then at First and Green streets, could rival the Klee firm.
Years later, Klee’s health began failing. In 1918, he brought licensed embalmer and funeral director Claud Morton from Madisonville to form Klee-Morton Co., with Morton as managing partner.
And in an oddly prescient move, Klee in October 1919 sold his grand home at 23 S. Main St. to Otis Benton.
Klee, a widower, was found dead on Jan. 3, 1920, at the home on Washington Street of one of his five daughters.
A month later, Klee-Morton brought on board Luther “Luke” Tapp, a licensed embalmer and a second-generation member of an undertaking business in Webster County.
Changing times
In prior years, funerals here were commonly conducted at gravesides, a church or private homes. The Hendersonian located 34 examples of funeral notices that appeared in the Gleaner from 1915 to 1920; not one stated that the solemn ceremony would take place at a “funeral home.”
But times were changing. Funeral directors were replacing horse-drawn hearses with motorized vehicles.
And the concept of a funeral home — a commercial establishment where the public could come to pay respects to the family of the deceased and funeral services could be conducted — was spreading.
Otis Benton embraced that vision.
Benton comes forward
Some modern local history enthusiasts have written that what Benton-Glunt stemmed directly from the Klee firm. That’s not quite correct; the facts are considerably more curious.
By 1925 and 1926, rumors circulated about Klee-Morton selling out or closing. “We are in the Undertaking business to stay,” the firm insisted in one Gleaner ad.
On May 4, 1926, a small news item in the Gleaner reported that construction had begun on a new building for Klee-Morton on Third Street. Later ads stated that the firm had moved to temporary quarters at 215 N. Main St.
Two days later, the Gleaner reported that Otis Benton had taken over the former Klee-Morton undertaking building at 17-19 S. Main St. and would open Otis A. Benton & Co. there.
Why Klee-Morton vacated its long-established location at 17-19 S. Main St. and allowed Benton to take over that space, requiring itself to take up temporary quarters elsewhere while it built a new building a few blocks away, is lost to history.
More announcements were on their way.
In July 2026, ads appeared under the name of Klee-Morton-Tapp Co., indicating that Luther Tapp had become a partner in the firm. With that, the Tapp name was fully introduced to Henderson’s funeral home lexicon.
By early August, they had occupied their new home at 223 Third St. On Aug. 15, 1926, there appeared in the Sunday paper two pages of congratulatory ads from contractors and architects as well as the funeral home itself.
The Gleaner called it “one of the outstanding structures in Henderson.”
Benton & Co. opens
The opening of Otis Benton & Co. at 17-19 S. Main St. was not far behind.
Benton was no stranger to public life here. He was known and apparently well-liked, having been elected to one term each as county clerk and sheriff (and who years later would serve a term as city commissioner, then mayor).
In September 2026, Benton advertised the availability of its new “reception room, family quarters and reposing rooms, also the use of our beautiful chapel, which is ample to accommodate any funeral service, if they desire to use same.”
“Seldom are establishments of this kind to be seen except in cities much larger than Henderson,” the Sunday Gleaner and Journal reported Sept. 19, 1926.
Klee firm finally succumbs
Doom struck Klee-Morton-Tapp in 1939 as its two proprietors, Morton and Tapp, died 11 weeks apart, with Tapp succumbing in December at just age 44.
Newspaper ads taken out by Tapp’s widow in January 1940 indicated that Tapp’s brothers would continue to operate the business.
But in March 1940 came the blunt announcement by Morton’s widow, the company’s president, that Klee-Morton-Tapp “has terminated its corporate existence and is now closing out and winding up its affairs.” The funeral home building at 223 Third St. was put up for rent.
It didn’t stay vacant long. In January 1941 came news of the establishment of the new Tapp-Jones Funeral Home at 223 Third St. by Tapp’s brothers — second-generation funeral business veterans Fred M. Tapp of Dixon and Kestner Tapp of Providence — along with a partner, P.M. “Peck” Jones, to be assisted by Fred M. Tapp’s son, Fred Allen Tapp.
Soon it would become known simply as Tapp Funeral Home, with locations in Dixon, Providence and Henderson, having been rolled into the Tapp family empire with the apparent departure of Jones.
Glunt joins Benton
The very next year, in 1942, 18-year-old Maynard Glunt hired on at Benton Funeral Home. After serving with the Navy during WWII, he graduated from embalming school in 1946 and returned to work at Benton.
In 1955, he acquired the Springfield Funeral Home in Sebree, moving there and operating it for seven years.
Then in 1962, Glunt and several investors purchased Benton Funeral Home the year before Benton died at age 81.
In 1971, Glunt purchased the building at 629 S. Green St. that had first housed the Interstate Glass House Restaurant.
In April 1972, Glunt announced plans to extensively remodel the building and relocate Benton Funeral Home there. A key reason was that the 1.4-acre property could provide ample parking, something that was lacking at 17-19 S. Main St.
By September 1972, the business called itself Benton-Glunt Funeral Home. By then, or thereabouts, Benton-Glunt relocated to South Green Street, where it remains today.
Meanwhile, bought out Paul B. Moss Funeral Residence in 1978 and quietly retired it.
More consolidation
Across town, Tapp Funeral Home purred along under the ownership of Fred Allen Tapp, who was also elected to seven consecutive terms as Henderson County coroner. In January 1979, Tapp died of a heart attack at age 66.
After being acquired and operated by longtime employees, Tapp Funeral Home was purchased by Maynard Glunt in 1986.
Six years later, Glunt sold Benton-Glunt, Tapp and Roselawn Memorial Gardens to Prime Succession Inc., a funeral home conglomerate. Within a decade, Prime was bankrupt; its assets, including funeral homes, were acquired by another company that began selling the funeral homes to local owners. One of its principals was Joe Veccia, a funeral director himself.
Down in south Florida, Joe Veccia’s brother and sister-in-law, Jim and Judy Veccia, wanted to own and operate a funeral home. They visited some large cities in Alabama where Prime Succession had acquired funeral homes.
Then they visited Henderson.
“I remember Mom saying, ‘It’s Henderson. It feels like home,’” Melanie Veccia Harrah, who with her husband, Eric, now owns and operates Benton-Glunt & Tapp Funeral Home, said in a recent interview.
Jim and Judy Veccia in 2004 bought Benton-Glunt and Tapp funeral homes as well as Roselawn Memorial Gardens — with Maynard and Emma Gene Glunt as partners — and made Henderson their home. Their relationship with Maynard continued until his death at age 82 in 2007.
The Veccia’s daughter and son-in-law, Melanie and Eric Harrah, followed and, over time, became licensed funeral directors while Eric became a licensed embalmer as well.
The funeral homes here had been neglected under Prime Succession, according to Barbara Shiver, a one-time secretary at Tapp who is now a funeral director with the company today.
“The grass outside was two feet tall” and the roof at the Tapp property was leaking inside, she said.
The Veccias began the process of renovating the Benton-Glunt and Tapp properties and reputations. Within five years, in 2009, the Veccias were honored as Henderson Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Persons of the Year for having refurbished the facilities and business.
In 2020, the Veccia family merged the two funeral homes into one location at 629 S. Green St., changing the name to Benton-Glunt & Tapp Funeral Home.
That same year, Jim Veccia died unexpectedly; his wife, Judy, retired shortly thereafter and the Harrahs assumed the business.
Change continues
The funeral home business continues to evolve, the Harrahs and Shiver said.
Women funeral directors such as Shiver and Melanie Harrah are far more common today. Visitations are shorter and not as widely attended. Use of funeral home limousines is less common.
And funerals are much more personalized, from DVD slideshows of the deceased’s photos to playing their favorite songs, Eric said.
“It used to be cookie cutter: play ‘Amazing Grace,’ the preacher says a few words, then play ‘How Great Thou Art,’” Eric Harrah said.
At funerals these days, “We’ve played AC/DC, Metallica, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the UK fight song, Monster Mash,” Melanie said.
One tradition remains: “I love the people of Henderson who still pull over” when they see a funeral procession approaching, Shiver said. “It’s so respectful.”
“I hope that never goes away,” she said.
While they’re aware of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Benton Funeral Home that is the root of their business — what Melanie calls their ministry — the Harrahs don’t plan much of a public centennial celebration.
“We’re a funeral home,” she said simply.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t mindful of the legacies of Otis A. Benton Sr., Fred Allen Tapp, Maynard Glunt, Jim and Judy Veccia and many others.
“Eric and me are standing,” Melanie Harrah said, “in the shadows of trees planted long ago.”
