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Burial by Vinson, a Tarpon Springs tradition

A Centennial Retailer award recognizes the funeral home that has played a role in the town's families for four generations.

By TIFFANI SHERMAN
Published February 21, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - There are two things you can count on, death and taxes. One Tarpon Springs family has been helping families through the former for more than 100 years.

"We've had our ups and downs," said Dan Vinson, 48, the fourth-generation owner of Vinson Funeral Home in Tarpon Springs. "We've gone through some difficult times and we persevere."

The business has done much more. Recently, the Florida Retail Federation honored Vinson Funeral Hhome and 20 other businesses from across Florida with Centennial Retailer awards in recognition of being in business for a century or more. The business owners had the chance to go to Tallahassee for a ceremony and a meeting with the governor.

"I was probably the smallest business," Vinson said. The Retail Federation also honored much bigger companies such as JCPenney Co.; Sears, Roebuck & Co.; and Walgreen Co. Only one other company, Bruce Watters Jewelers of St. Petersburg, was from Pinellas County.

"It is tremendous company to be in," Vinson said.

Vinson's great-grandfather, L.D. Vinson, got the family into the funeral business in 1890, when he began selling coffins at his dry goods store.

"The funeral business was kind of a side business," Dan Vinson said. But then the state started licensing funeral providers, so great-grandfather L.D. got his embalming license in 1906.

He turned the business over to his son L.K. Vinson in 1926.

L.K. moved everything from uptown Tarpon Springs to its present location at 456 Tarpon Ave.

Some years later, Dan Vinson's father, Gene Vinson, built a chapel to hold funeral and memorial services. With its exposed rafters and old Florida style, "it's warm and comfortable, not cold and sterile," Dan Vinson said.

The comfortable feeling may be one of the reasons Vinson Funeral Home hasn't become one of the many small-business casualties.

According to the Small Business Administration, almost as many small businesses close as open every year. Two-thirds of new businesses survive at least two years and about half survive at least four.

"People will tell you around town it's a tradition to be buried by Vinson," said Anita Protos, 62, a former mayor of Tarpon Springs. "The Vinson Funeral Home has buried every one of my husband's family and my family."

It's that family atmosphere that makes people comfortable. Protos said the Vinsons have always been known for their compassion and their place in the city's history.

"For me, I don't leave my home" of Tarpon Springs, Protos said. "You don't go out of town to a funeral home."

Living up to a city's expectations is far from easy and means working much more than 9 to 5.

"It's pretty much 24-7," Vinson said.

"People pass on at all hours of the night, and when they call, we have to respond. Some weeks we'll have nothing and others we'll have one every day."

Vinson has two full-time employees, including himself, but many part-timers do their share. Some do much more.

"I've worked with three generations of Vinsons," said Phillip Demas, 91, of Tarpon Springs.

Demas began working as a Greek interpreter at the funeral home in 1938. Since then, he said, he has worked in just about every department and still helps out sometimes.

"I'm semiretired," Demas said.

Demas said the family atmosphere keeps him coming back.

"Great-grandfather, to grandfather, to father, to present, they go the extra mile for the families" in times of need, Demas said. "The Vinson family has always been known for their understanding."

"We try to make each service unique," Vinson said.

He and other employees use things like pictures and special music to help families "celebrate a life instead of mourn a death."

He said that's what sets him apart from some of the bigger funeral companies.

"The families who value that type of service will come" to Vinson, Vinson said.

Vinson is the youngest of six siblings and the only one in the family business. He said his siblings moved on to other careers.

He has four sons of his own from 12 to 23 and said he's not sure what their plans are.

"I think it's too soon to tell, but it's a decision they'll have to make on their own," Vinson said. "You can't push it."

[Last modified February 21, 2005, 01:32:19]