About Family Heritage
Family Heritage Funeral Home is a new building, with a lot of family history at the heart. The building was built in 2003 by Phillip and Shirley Anderson. In February 2006, Charles “Tony” Alexander and Sue Newby Alexander purchased the funeral home at 100 Albert Gallatin Avenue with the blessings of Tony’s parents, Paul and Rubye Anne Alexander, and his sister and brother-in-law, Paula and Bill Troutt.
Sue Newby Alexander was introduced into the funeral business in 1980. She and Bob Newby ran Newby Funeral Home at 202 East Main Street. Today the building serves as a church but it started out as Harris-North Funeral Home in the early 1900’s. Mr. Harris’ daughter married Royce Donoho who became partners with his new father-in-law and the name of the business was later changed to Harris-Donoho. In the 1960’s, the Alexander’s purchased the business and it was closed for about 5 years. When it was reopened in 1971, Mr. Donoho had new partners and the name was changed to Donoho-Legge-Bentley. In the mid 70’s Bob Newby bought into the business and changed the name to Donoho-Newby. In 1977, the Newby’s bought out their partner Mr. Donoho, and the name changed to Newby Funeral Home. The Newby’s ran the business together until 1994 when the funeral home was sold to corporate. Sue Newby Alexander remained with the funeral home as manager until February 2006 when she and Tony purchased the building at 100 Albert Gallatin Ave.
Alexander Funeral Home started as Alexander Undertaking Company in 1907 with C.C. Alexander. The business remained in the family for just over eight decades being passed from father to son, through 4 generations, and served a vast area of Middle Tennessee. In the 1990’s, corporations starting buying out family owned funeral homes and cemeteries across the country. In 1991, the Alexander family decided to sell the last funeral home they owned at 584 Nashville Pike.
When Tony and Sue married in 2000 they were both still involved in the business but neither owned their funeral homes. Being unhappy working for corporations, the opportunity arose and they decided that they could better serve the families in the community if they were a locally owned, family owned funeral home again. The name of Family Heritage Funeral Home was chosen because both families, the Alexander’s and the Newby’s, have been in the business for decades. Their families, together, have served several generations within the community and instill a strong heritage and history to the Sumner County area.
In 2009 Tony and Sue purchased Alexander Funeral Home and the business of Newby Funeral Home back from the corporation.
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