Our Story
he history of Kays-Ponger & Uselton Funeral Homes & Cremation Services reaches back well over a century, when McClelland Funeral Home opened in 1907. That location would eventually become Kays-Ponger Funeral Home when, in 1972, Edward Ponger and Ronald Kays, both long-time Charlotte County residents, merged their funeral homes—Kays Funeral Home and Ponger Funeral Home—into a partnership that served all of Charlotte County.
Meanwhile, Steven Annecone, Robert Brady and Ray Williams opened a second location of their Lemon Bay Funeral Home to serve the Venice and North Port communities. In 1975, they joined Edward and Ronald and changed the name of their Venice business to Kays-Ponger, in the hopes of serving more families.
In 2005, Edward and Ronald merged their funeral homes with that of another long-time Charlotte County resident’s, when Michael Uselton, managing partner of Remembrance Services of Florida, acquired the firms. That’s when the name Kays-Ponger & Uselton Funeral Homes & Cremation Services came to be.
Today, the Kays-Ponger & Uselton group of funeral homes are part of the Dignity Memorial network.