Melton-Kitchens celebrates 65 years
The Melton-Kitchen Funeral Home began 65 years ago when Don and Mary Melton purchased Kiker Funeral Home in December 1953 in Breckenridge, which was situated where the large parking lot for the First United Methodist Church now exists.
Melton conferred with the architectural firm of Carl Everett’s father to design a funeral home to co-exist with their residence, which included a wife and three children.
As it turned out, this was the only one of its type between Fort Worth and El Paso, at that time.
Melton had worked for Kiker as an assistant at the Kiker Funeral Home for several years and part-time at Nap Drug Store. Sharon (Melton) Kitchen’s grandfather was a pharmacist and Dr. Lawrence of Breckenridge, is her uncle. As a result, Mr. Melton had a great background for going into the business and knew how he wanted to conduct it.
Mr. Melton was on the third wave of U.S. Marines who landed at Iwo Jima, during World War II. He helped survey the dead, dying and wounded right there on the beach. He helped triage the worst cases and handle the ones who had already fallen. Melton had first-hand nowledge aout the dead, dying and severely wounded during his stint in the military. When he began Melton’s Funeral Home, he adopted an approach to the families they served with the motto, “We will serve you as you wish to be served.”
The name was formally changed from Kiker Funeral Home to Melton’s Funeral Home in January 1954, after the purchase was made in 1953.
There is an interesting story about the Melton Funeral Home clock that was out in front of the funeral home, located at the corner of W. Walker and S. Miller Streets. Most parents set their clocks and watches by the Melton clock and parents insisted their children go y this specific cloc as well. The Meltons would often get a phone call in the late evenings, asking what time it was on their clock, thus the child had only minutes to be home before the designated curfew.
Additionally, there was a goldfish pond attached to the clock structure and it was Sharon’s job to take care of the feeding of the goldfish as she was growing up. A job she detested and as a result, never allowed her kids to have goldfish as they were growing up. The Melton family moved into their new residence and the Melton Funeral Home in the early 1960s, where it is currently located at the corner of W. Williams and S. Miller streets.
here was an official dedication of the chapel that was added at Melton’s on April , . dditionally, ance Kitchens and Sharon Melton were married in the chapel in 1969 and they also had a renewal of their vows in the chapel for their 40th wedding anniversary, presided over by Charles Kuhn. The Kitchens celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Woman’s Forum.
ance Kitchens was drafted into the U. S. Army and did a stint in Vietnam from December 1970 to November 1971. When he returned from his U.S. Army service, he became a social studies teacher and coach at a few other schools ut finally came home to Breckenridge. It was at Breckenridge Junior High School where he coached and taught for a number of years while Sharon taught English at Breckenridge High School. ance Kitchens was originally from Childress.
ance left teaching to wor at the funeral home full-time Feb. 28, 1981. Sharon retired from teaching at BHS in 2000, but she had already gone to Mortuary School and gotten her license in 1991. The couple had taen over official ownership of the funeral home on Sept. 17, 1989 and in 1994, the name was officially changed to Melton-Kitchens Funeral Home.
Their son, Rich Kitchens graduated in 1988, their daughter, Kari in 1991 and their daughter, ori in .
All three were graduates of Breckenridge High School. ance and Sharon Kitchens took a brief two-year respite from running the funeral home on a daily basis but are now back at the helm with J.B. Sparks and have added another assistant, Chris Baldree, who began in early January.
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