Dew’s grandfather and father ran a funeral home in Ozark.  Comments Dew, “I basically grew up in the funeral home there, a small funeral home called Shaffer funeral home, and my dad was the manager there for over 30 years, until he passed. I've just been around it my whole life. My dad's dad was also a funeral director, so it's normal for me, as normal as anyone who grew up with a parent who was a teacher or something.”

She described the experience of being with her father in the funeral home at night, waiting for him to finish an important responsibility.  “If he had to go to the funeral home to embalm, he would have to take me up there with him, and I would go in one of the family rooms and go back to sleep in the middle of the night. A lot of people think the funeral home is scary, and they think it's taboo, but to me, it's just another home.”

For her college years, Dew traveled down to Southern Arkansas University. There she met her husband Trevor Dew, who is with the Arkansas State Police.  After the move to Magnolia, she found she liked it so much down that she wanted to stay.

“I met my husband, got married, three kids, and I've been in south Arkansas ever since.  That was in 2015, so ten years now,” she said.

But before all this, Dew said following her grandfather and father into the funeral business was not what she envisioned for herself when she was growing up. “I said that I didn't want to do that. … And up until probably the year before my dad passed--he passed in 2020--I was still steadfast in that … because of the sometimes late hours and the unpredictable scheduling at times,” Dew said.

But after her father died, after she had attended the funeral, she began to reconsider.  “Here were people from all walks of life and a huge, diverse crowd of people there, and all they had to say was, ‘Your dad was so kind, and he helped me, and I wouldn't have been able to get through X, Y and Z without him.’ Not long after I had processed my own grief from that, I got to thinking I want to have that kind of impact on people.”

In a quest to follow up on her father’s legacy, she began to pursue education in the field to become qualified to provide the kind of services families need during their saddest days.  From University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana, she attained an Associate of Applied Science in Funeral Service.  She is now licensed in both Arkansas and Texas to embalm and direct funeral services and has worked for the Herndon-Fuqua company at Chapelwood Funeral Funeral Home in Nash, Texas and Texarkana. 

Dew also brings with her a lot of experience she can draw from in providing services to the bereaved.  “When my dad passed, I was an adult. It was in 2020, I was 23 and I had children. I was married. It was sudden; we hadn't expected it. And I lost my mom when I was 11. She had cancer. So that was, you know, kind of drawn out. And then I had, [while growing up], three of my grandparents passed,” she said.   “My personal life experiences allow me to be more empathetic and a little more understanding.”

The Dews now live in Patmos. They have three children, Tristan, Salem and Sienna, who all enjoy making use of the ten acres surrounding their house.  “We just like to be outside, especially this time of year.  We’re working on the house and the kids are swinging on the swing set and playing in the mud,” she said.

About the Herndon-Fuqua Funeral Home in Hope, Dew said, “They've been operational since was it 1898. … It's neat that they've been working that long, even though it's changed hands and ownership. But the main thing I would want people to know is that they're welcome here. If they want to stop by and take a look around, if they just want to stop in and grab a cup of coffee in the mornings, we just want to be open and let everybody know that they're welcome.”

Herndon-Fuqua Funeral Home is on 403 South Main Street in Hope and has one location each in Prescott and Gurdon.

Our pictorial features photos from inside the Hope location.