"Where there's a need...there stands Kirk"

This was the motto of C. L. Kirkpatrick. It was over fifty years ago when Mr. Kirkpatrick, then district manager of Booker T. Washington Insurance Company, felt a need to establish a funeral business for the town of Andalusia, AL. Having successfully generated enough insurance business in this area, he was able to convince the Home Office management that a district office in Andalusia was warranted and needed. Subsequently, one was set up under his leadership and management. With his dynamic sales force and a highly competitive insurance product, the district thrived and prospered.

However, in 1965 the prosperity of the insurance business began to decline and take another turn, as it became more and more difficult to sell insurance policies. Nevertheless, it did not take long to discover the reason why. That reason being that people were becoming reluctant to buy Booker T. Washington insurance because they were being told in the field that there was no authorized funeral home in Andalusia that could service their policies in case of death. Because of this, Kirk, who knew nothing about the funeral business at that time, began to explore the idea of opening up a funeral home. He felt then, based on what was being encountered by his sales team in the field, that he had little or no alternative other than setting up a funeral home; since the success of his insurance business ultimately depended on the ability to assure and guarantee his policyholders a funeral facility that would service their death claims.

It was out of this need that in 1965, Kirk’s Funeral Chapel had its origin. The original location was set up on North Cotton Street. In 1975, ten years after, the vision toward a new facility was constructed and has remain at this location for the past 40 years. Additionally, Kirk’s concern for providing better and more complete funeral services; led him to establish a vault services, a weekly radio broadcast service and in 1984, he open a second funeral home the Florala Memorial Funeral Chapel. On March 10th, 2019 Mr. Kirkpatrick passed away at the age of 93.

Now under the leadership of his son, Earl Kirkpatrick, Kirk's Funeral Chapel continues to responds to the needs of families in their time of bereavement.