Heritage

From our company origins in the mid 1930's to today, we have served our community with compassion and a genuine sense of calling. Roland and Beth Speaks started the Speaks funeral home in 1936. They established a reputation for honesty, integrity, and a real desire to be of service. The tradition they began has been carried on thru three generations of Speaks.

Born in 1907, Roland Speaks moved from the family farm near Pleasanton, KS, up to Kansas City in the late ‘20s. Arriving in Independence, Missouri on the old streetcar system, he earned the chance to learn the funeral profession from Mr. C. D. Carson, the owner of the original Carson Funeral Home. That establishment was located uptown in old Independence. Rollie Speaks, as he was known, worked for “room and board” (meaning he didn’t get paid anything) and lived upstairs at the Carson Funeral Home at the corner of Union and Lexington. He worked shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Carson’s son, George C. Carson, and together they served the community for many years. When Rollie and Beth married, their first home together was living upstairs at the funeral home and when their son Bob was born, his first home was there at the Carson’s funeral home.

Eventually,` C.D. Carson died and while his oldest child, Miss V. E. Carson, inherited the business, George Carson saw the opportunity to start his very own funeral home. The George C. Carson Funeral Home was born and eventually eclipsed their family’s previous success. Around that time, Rollie Speaks decided that he would follow suit, and he forged a partnership with the Independence Chief of Police, Mr. D. O. Cato, starting his own funeral home in Independence in 1936.

Cato & Speaks, as it was originally called, was established in an old home next to the R.L.D.S. Auditorium, at the corner of Lexington and Grand. In 1943 Rollie purchased Mr. Cato’s share of the business and he and Beth then operated the funeral home for decades after that, raising their son Bob in the business, and for many of those years they lived upstairs at the funeral home itself. In keeping with their history, Rollie and George Carson remained friends and were friendly competitors, and colleagues, and they celebrated the births of kids and grandchildren as each other’s families grew.

As the small funeral home began to serve more families, Rollie brought his sister Lucile up from the farm to help keep the books, answer the phone, do the ladies hair, and help out. It truly was a “family funeral home.” Rollie and Beth lived upstairs with Bob at the business until eventually moving across the street to 1204 W. Lexington in order to have more room and enjoy their family life. When Lucile married Russell Hardy, they all worked together in serving the community from then on and Russell worked as a funeral director at Speaks for decades.

Interestingly, despite the relatively small size of the city in those days, some 11,000 people, there were a large number of funeral homes in operation. They included, at various times: the Latta Funeral Home; the C. D. Carson Funeral Home; the Stahl Funeral Home; the George C. Carson Funeral Home; the Speaks Funeral Home; the Nunn/Collier Funeral Home; the Kepley Funeral Home, the Ott Funeral Home; and the Mitchell Funeral Home. Year by year most of these companies either went out of business or were bought and merged into other operations. Eventually only Speaks and Carson remained of those original

Historically, funeral establishments nationwide were simply homes that had been retrofitted and the phrase “funeral home” was used to describe them. Speaks was no different. However, as he outgrew the original building, Rollie built onto the structure in 1957, adding a modern chapel, and expanding the seating capacity to better serve their clientele. This met with much success and the community appreciated the amenities at Speaks. The old Quick Grocery Store next door, on the corner of Walnut and Lexington, was added to the complex and from then on the Speaks used the entire block for their operations.

In 1974 Beth and Rollie’s son, Bob Speaks, returned to Independence after years spent as a college professor and campus pastor. With his pastoral background, Bob brought another layer of care and compassion to the firm. He tried to build bridges with every faith tradition in the area and during those years Speaks began to serve the entire community rather than just being a small neighborhood funeral home.

Seeing the future in the demographic shifts occurring in Independence, and with an eye towards better serving Easter Jackson County, Bob Speaks purchased a large tract of land on the corner of E. 39th Street and M-291 Hwy. That area of town was largely undeveloped at that time, but Bob was a visionary who foresaw things moving towards the southeast side of town. In 1982, the Speaks Suburban Chapel was completed and put into service as a branch chapel. It grew rapidly as more and more families selected that location. It eventually became the Speaks main facility.

Seeing a need to further help grieving families, Bob and his wife at that time, Marty Bennett Speaks, started one of the first funeral home-based grief support efforts in the nation. Small group classes were held on a regular basis, and a wonderful library of helpful books was built. Bob’s background in pastoral ministry was ideal for the effort to assist families even past the funeral itself. Over time however, local churches and hospice groups increasingly took on that role with their own grief support programs and Speaks felt that the community was well served by those efforts.

In 1998, Bob Speaks and the Speaks family took over the operation of the old Reppert-Brown Funeral Home in Buckner, MO, on the east side of Independence. After extensive remodeling and updating, it was placed back in service and it continues to operate today providing a beautiful facility for the residents of Buckner, Sibley, eastern Independence, Grain Valley, and Oak Grove.

Then in 2003, the Speaks family purchased the George C. Carson & Sons Funeral Home in Independence. This meant a lot to the Speaks because they remembered their beginnings with the Carson family. And this brought Bob Speaks full circle, since his first home in life was living upstairs at the original old C. D. Carson Funeral Home. Improvements began immediately on the facilities and the funeral home was updated, made handicap accessible, and completely remodeled by the end of 2006. The Carson funeral home had conducted President Harry S. Truman’s services in Independence, and it was felt that the location and history deserved to be treated with appropriate upkeep and improvements.

Bob’s influence and his dedication to serving the entire community influenced his sons, Brad Speaks and David Speaks. After purchasing the business from their father, brothers Brad and David Speaks operated the firm together for many years. Much later, with his eye on following his own path, David Speaks left the funeral home in 2018 and is now a nationally recognized Senior Trainer in customer service for funeral homes working to better serve their clientele.

Brad Speaks continues to be involved in the business and has expanded the firm’s offerings to fit local families and their preferences in the post-Covid world. As the area’s largest cremation and funeral provider, Speaks serves the community with care and compassion now, just as they did in 1936. The legacy of our founders lives on and our commitment remains the same as it was when Roland Speaks opened his doors. We help families celebrate life.