Buxton and Bass - Okeechobee The Magazine

Buxton and Bass
Partnership Born of Tragedies, Perseverance
By Raye Deusinger O Photos by Sandra Pearce
Between 1976 and 1979, three men, in three different cities, were following paths which would eventually
unite them in a fourth city and in a single business, the Buxton and Bass Okeechobee Funeral Home and
Crematory. Their similar stories reflect what they each believe was guided by God. Other similarities show that
each man was destined for his profession and that each was drawn to it through personal loss as well as perseverance. Meet the Basses, the Buxtons and the Conways, three families with unique but very similar stories.
Our Okeechobee story begins in the early 1950s when a young boy from Belle Glade took on a job at LeBron
Williams’ Funeral Home cutting grass to earn extra money. One day the boss invited that young boy, Lavon
Bass, to go on “a call.” The satisfaction of the work created a dream in Bass, and he realized that day that funeral services was what he wanted to do with his life.
His journey began after his service in the United States Air Force, where he was stationed in Germany. Upon
his return to the States, Bass went to mortuary school in Dallas through the G.I. Bill. He later moved to Alabama and began working. When he got the devastating news that his father had suffered a heart attack, Bass
packed up and returned home to help his mother. 
Seated: Lavon Bass and Paul Buxton. Standing (L-R): Gail Bass,
Tom Conway Jr., Tom Conway, Matt Buxton and Marilyn A. Buxton.
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Later, Curtiss Kickliter, who owned a
funeral home in Okeechobee, called
Bass seeking help to run it. Bass continued working there when the business
was sold to Cliff Suddreth. His job included taking the receipts to the bank,
where he met his wife, Gail Moore, who
had recently been widowed. They soon
married, and he became the father to
her two children, Van and Becky.
When Suddreth decided to sell the funeral home, Gail used her home as collateral and in 1976 they took possession of it and named it the Okeechobee
Funeral Home. At the time, Bass didn’t
even have a Florida license to operate it,
so he went to Miami-Dade Community
College and became a licensed funeral
director. Gail’s brother Grant Ridgeway
also became a licensed funeral director
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Lavon Bass and Paul Buxton
and joined the business.
“We worked long hours; it wasn’t an
early success,” Bass said. Gail also
helped out at the funeral home doing office work, transporting bodies to
the airport and running flowers to the
cemetery. “I believed in and supported
my husband,” Gail said. “I had lost
my father at an early age, then lost my
husband at 30 and was left with two
little children. That experience has since
helped me help other women in similar
circumstances.”
Meanwhile, just 60 miles east, in West
Palm Beach, Paul Buxton was also paving his path in funeral services. While
in high school, he worked at a funeral
home and instantly felt the need and
compassion to help others in what he
believed was a ministry. Buxton always
had the support from his wife and childhood sweetheart, Marilyn. They both
went to college at the University of
South Florida and married a week after
graduation in 1972. “It was a storybook
romance,” said Buxton.
After college, Buxton worked in management for the Florida Parole and
Probation Commission in Palm Beach
County but finally decided to make his
move and attend mortuary school. Because of his motivation, he completed
a two-year course in only 10 months,
driving from his home in Lake Park to
Miami every day. In 1979, he graduated
with the highest GPA in his class.
Just as Buxton was completing his
schooling, he got a call from Willard
and Janet Mays in Okeechobee. They
owned the building at the site of the
present-day Buxton & Bass Funeral
Home, where another funeral home
had previously been operated. The Mays
were looking for a director to manage it
and had been told about Buxton, who
was then interning with Howard Funeral Home in North Palm Beach. Buxton
told them he didn’t want to manage a
funeral home, he wanted to own a funeral home. The Mays agreed, and Buxton became the proud owner of his very
own funeral home.
Just like Bass in the beginning of his
ownership, Buxton hadn’t yet been licensed, so he was unable to run his funeral home solo. As a result, he hired
his retired embalming professor while
he finished his internship and sat for his
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Spring 2014 | 45
board and state exams. In 1980, he officially opened Buxton Funeral Home
in what became direct competition
with Bass Funeral Home. The Buxtons
by then had two young sons, Matthew
(Matt) and Timothy. A year later, they
welcomed their daughter, Rachel, and
in another two years, their third son
Philip. Marilyn, like Gail, did all she
could to help her husband succeed. She,
too, drove the hearse to take bodies for
shipment, ran the office and transported
flowers, all while handling four small
children.
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Over the years, Okeechobee began
choosing — many liking Bass better,
many liking Buxton better. Both men
believed serving the public with compassion and care was paramount. “We
had a few rough years,” Gail said. “This
competition was something new to us.
We liked them, but this was competition.”
Bass was already part of the Okeechobee
community, was a 42-year member of
the Lions Club, served on the City
Council and was a member of Kiwanis.
Buxton also became active within the
community. He chaired the Red Cross
for eight years, was on the board of the
Rehab Center, began the crisis hotline
and in 1983 founded Hospice and got
land donated for the building which, on
completion, was mortgage-free.
Over time, Buxton’s sons became part
of the family business, helping out after school and on weekends. Bass’s son,
Van, also took a role in his father’s establishment. Then in 2000, life changed
for the Basses when Van was killed in
a car accident. Maintaining the funeral
home became progressively harder for
the Basses. In 2003, Tom Conway, a
fourth-generation funeral director from
New York, bought the Bass Funeral
Home.
Continuing the strange parallel, the
Buxtons’ lives also changed in 2004
46 | Spring 2014
Tom Conway and his son Tom Jr.
when the back-to-back hurricanes hit
Okeechobee, leveling their funeral
home to its foundation. They immediately drew plans for a new building
and began to build the structure that
stands today. During construction, they
continued to serve the community, operating out of three modular offices. In
February 2006, they moved into their
brand-new facility.
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Matt, who became a licensed funeral director in 1997, completing a two-year
curriculum in one year, began to take
a more active role in his father’s business. Matt knew at age 5, when he got
his first three-piece suit, that this was his
calling. He and his siblings were taught
to “run flowers,” which helped teach
them about the industry and which,
Matt said, “started the dream of one day
having my own funeral home.”
While Matt was becoming more of a
main presence in his father’s business,
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Conway and his son Tom Jr. were integrating into Okeechobee. Their family
had been in the funeral industry since
1862, when Conway’s great-grandmother opened a funeral business out
of her stable and livery service in New
York. Conway became a licensed funeral director in 1979. In 1983, his father
and brother were killed in an accident,
and at 25, he assumed leadership of the
family business.
In 1997, they sold that business and
moved to Florida. The death of their
youngest son, Quinn, in 2003 drew
them back into the industry, and they
bought Bass Funeral Home with Conway and his son Tom Jr. as directors.
Conway said, “Lavon Bass came back
to work with us and is one of the hardest workers we have; he came back
home. It is good for him and good for
us.” Raised on a farm in New York, the
Conways felt immediately at home in
Okeechobee and knew they wanted to
keep Bass as a family-operated funeral
home. Conway’s wife, Lisa, later began
operating Yates Funeral Home in Fort
Pierce. Conway and his wife have four
daughters, Kaitlin, Kaela, Brenna and
Baleigh, and two sons, Tom Jr. and Patrick.
and now work together under the same
roof. “We are proudly working together
rather than competing,” said Conway.
Bass’s son-in-law Jim Barnhart is now
also working in the business while seeking his funeral license.
Buxton said that he and Bass, along
with Buxton’s son Matt and the Conways, have finally accomplished what
they should have done years ago. “Because we are all dedicated to the same
cause, we see what we could have accomplished sooner and now enjoy,” he
said.
Now, everything needed to handle a funeral is available in one place. Families
no longer have to choose. They get the
best of what Bass and Buxton started so
many years ago. The Buxtons, Basses
and Conways are driven to provide the
best service possible. The competition of
the past has been replaced by friendship.
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The country’s economic downturn
greatly hurt the Buxton family when it
became impossible to convert their construction loan into a mortgage. Matt
wanted to do what he could for his family, including his two daughters, Morgan
and Dayton. He located a silent partner
and built a new facility at the same time
Conway bought the Buxtons’ building.
In time, Matt and his family severed all
ties with his silent partner and moved
back to their original location, where he
has begun to acquire ownership.
From the long history of dedication of
three families, from the personal losses
and trials endured by each, there is now
a new dynamic where the Buxtons, Basses and Conways have found friendship
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Tom Conway Jr. and Matt Buxton.
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