Pretlow & Sons Funeral Home

Twiford Funeral Home Swindell Funeral Home, Inc was originally opened as a branch of Twiford Funeral Homes of Elizabeth City in 1952 when Sam A. Twiford acquired the former Gaither residence at 509 Dobbs Street in Hertford. He converted the house into a then-modern funeral home and promoted Marion Smith Swindell to manage the firm. After serving as manager for seven years, Marion and his wife Betty, also a licensed funeral director, bought the business and its assets in June of 1959 and founded Swindell Funeral Home. He continued to own and operate the business for the next 26 years until, in November of 1985, he retired and handed over the reigns to his son, W. Larry Swindell. Larry has owned and operated the family business since and continues to provide "a tradition of service" to the people of Perquimans County and the Albemarle area. 1960s Funeral Home In the mid 1960s, as the business grew, so did the need for more facilities. Marion had a new garage building with two apartments built behind the funeral home. The original garage and outbuilding were demolished soon after completion of the new building. In the fall of 1967, Marion and Issac Lowe of Lowe Funeral Home wrote open letters to the people of Perquimans County explaining the reason for ceasing ambulance service in the near future. Up until around that time, local funeral homes around the country had provided ambulance services to their surrounding communities, as they were the only parties with vehicles large enough to accommodate a stretcher. The State Legislature of North Carolina passed new laws that year making it too expensive for funeral homes to continue ambulance operations. Following with this decree, Marion donated an ambulance and all of the funeral home's ambulance equipment to the newly formed Perquimans County Rescue Squad. Betty Thigpen Swindell Earlier that year, Marion entered into a two-year partnership with H. Brad Williford, Jr. in purchasing Williford Funeral Home in Edenton, NC. This partnership allowed Marion to help keep Williford's afloat after the death of its founder, T.B. Williford in 1966. The following year, a complete renovation and expansion project began on the funeral home. A new casket display room, along with additional rooms upstairs in the apartment, was added onto the existing building. The original front porch was removed and replaced with a new, two-story one with tall, Doric columns and the entire facade of the building was bricked.