01/21/2026
All of us at Crowder-Hite-Crews Funeral Home and Crematory want to congratulate Randolph Hite on his well deserved retirement. Randolph will still be a very important member of our team and available to those families he has served in the past. Henry Davis, a life long resident of Chase City, has joined our team. He has many years of experience in the funeral industry and shares our philosophy of treating our clients just like family. Below are some reflections that Randolph wrote while thinking about his long career in funeral service.
Crowder_Hite_Crews Funeral Home and Crematory
Randolph Hite Retires. Here he talks about his journey>
With the new year comes new changes and some of those changes will be taking place at Crowder-Hite-Crews Funeral Home in South Hill. Randolph Hite who has been in funeral service since 1971, and served as Co-Owner, Secretary, Treasurer at CHC since 1984 retired on December 31, 2025. Henry Davis is now one of the new co-owners joining Jimmie Keith Crowder, and Jimmie Crowder Jr. along with Matt Hite, and Trent Gwaltney as the CHC team. Mckayla Tiller recently welcomed a new baby and has decided to become a full-time mom as she leaves behind good memories of working with CHC to take on her new adventure in life.
As Randolph leaves behind a long career to enjoy retirement he reflected on his journey into the funeral service business. Here he gives his own words and memories of a fulfilling life.
“My great grandfather Waller Taylor Bracey used to have and sell caskets from his general store in the middle of downtown Bracey. He had them on the balcony upstairs in his old brick store. It was my first realization that people died and the casket was the most important part of the funeral ceremony and the preacher’s message, of course, though I had never been to a funeral. Great Granddaddy built his house on top of the Bracey Hill in 1905 and after World War II , my parents met and married and moved into the house to take of him. He took care of my mother, after her mother, his daughter died the same day she was born from the Asian flu and child birth in 1918 at the age of 22.
We lived together with him until 1960 when he died there in the house. Crews Funeral Home of South Hill came during the night to make the removal while my brother and I slept until morning when Mama told us what had happened during the night. This was back in the days when the body was brought back to the home and yes, Granddaddy, (though he was actually Great Granddaddy), but he was more of a father to my mother than a grandfather and she referred to him as daddy, after her father remarried and moved to Richmond leaving her to be raised by her grandparents. The funeral staff brought him back to his home and placed him in the front parlor of the house. People sent flowers and visited with my mother and Waller’s remaining daughter, Gladys, for the next couple of days as I guess it would have been like a visitation today.
After the people would go home and my parents got ready to retire for the night, I would sneak back into the parlor and cry and shake his casket trying to wake him back up. It was my first experience with a funeral and I was only 9 years old at the time. The funeral was graveside the next day in the cemetery in the field beside the house where his wife and daughter were previously buried. In those days at the conclusion of the service they would lower the casket into the grave in front of you. I felt my heart come out of my body and the crying just would not stop, though many tried to comfort me, the realization hurt so bad, I didn’t think I would ever get over this moment in my lifetime. But life for the living does continue on and the pain hurts less as the years go by.
After elementary and high school, I decided to become a teacher but after two years, and this being 1969, the changes were coming and were not received well. The days ahead for being a teacher with society in turmoil, riots in the streets, unrest all over the South, this was no longer a career I wanted to pursue. But what now, a job with a future so let’s think about where I could fit in and help others at the same time. Yep, we were dragged to church every Sunday with that over starched white shirt rubbing a red ring around your neck. And we were taught to always help those who needed help. In a small community where we all knew each family, you knew who needed food, a little piece of money and help in the fields or chores. That’s what you did, for it was the Christian thing to do for your neighbors. (Old school values).
I thought funeral service. I had great granddaddy’s name, I was Waller Randolph and he was Waller Taylor and how hard could it be. They were always dressed up and usually just stand around the front door welcoming mourners in to comfort the family of the deceased. (Boy, was that wrong!) There’s a lot more to our profession than can be imagined!
I approached a friend of mine who was working a funeral home, for free board and to earn a little money about what I would have to do to become a funeral director. He directed me to his uncle Bobby Crews and Bobby got me a job at E. Alvin Small Funeral Home in Colonial Heights where I started my required two years of apprenticeship.
Remember now, I was a greenhorn to the trade and had to live in the funeral home upstairs at Small’s Funeral Home. I had never lived in a funeral home with other’s loved ones right below me. The first night, I slept with a knife under my pillow because, yes, I was afraid. The next day, Herbert Small and myself drove to Pennsylvania for a burial in Strasburg. On the way back Herbert said he was so glad to be back home after the long drive, to which I responded” Herbert I could drive all the way to Florida”, for I didn’t want another night upstairs at the funeral home. But the good Lord works in mysterious ways, I was so tired from not sleeping the night before and the long drive, I fell immediately to sleep and haven’t had a problem with that ever since.
After two years at John Tyler’s mortuary program, finishing my apprenticeship and taking and passing the state board, I got my license. I was now a licensed Mortician. I had been taught embalming, counseling and all the other meaningful duties that go in conducting a funeral service.
While in school I became friends with Norbert Bliley of Joseph W. Bliley’s Funeral Home in Richmond. He called me one day after I was licensed and still employed by Small’s and offered me a job at their funeral home. This was a large step for me, since I was going to leave a funeral home at that time doing about 200 calls a year to one that was doing about 2200 services a year and in a city too. Nothing was the same there, murders, suicides, wrecks, plane crashes, drownings, it looked like no one in the city lived to a ripe old age and just passed away. Clinically, this was quite the opportunity to gain perfection of my new career. Also, we dealt with all of the religions and their traditions of funeral service. I was a Catholic at 10:00, a Hebrew by 12:00 and back to being a Protestant by 2:00. We served the Greeks, Armenians, Russian Orthodox and any other religions that called on us for service. What an eye opener that was, but after ten years there, I had a handle on all the different services and the preparations that came my way.
While in Richmond, I met the love of my life, Kaye, married and started having children. This was strange for me because I was used to knowing the drivers of my children’s school bus, the teachers and principals by name and the small town, close-knit atmosphere I had grown up in.
Did I mention that the good Lord has a way of dealing with my struggles. One night in 1981 I got a call from Bobby Crews informing me that Jimmie Crowder, who I graduated with at John Tyler, had bought out his partner and he would like to talk to me about coming home and if Tuesday would be a good day to get together? Kaye and I were so excited about this offer of going back to my home. While we were jumping around over this offer, the phone rang again. It was Jimmie Crowder, explaining to me his new purchase of all of his funeral home and that he was looking for a licensed man and since I was from Bracey maybe I would like to talk it over one day next week. I told him I would be in South Hill that Tuesday (didn’t mention Bobby) and yes, I would like to talk. I met with Bobby at 9:00 A.M. and with Jimmie Keith at 1:00 P.M. their offers both were less than half of what I was making and no benefits. I was a senior licensed director/embalmer with Bliley’s at that time. Though, Jimmie had offered me to buy in whenever I felt like it and that sealed the deal. The first years were a strain for us both, families included, but eventually we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Bobby retired in 1988 and sold us his business, though that didn’t last long as we got competition within the next year. The years went by to fast but we gained support from a marvelous area of families and were so appreciative of the trust families had put in us.
I’ve been Jimmie’s partner in business for 43 years now. I’ve been in funeral service for 55 years and am getting ready to turn 75 years old this month. In order to take advantage to what years of health I have left, spend more time with my wife of almost 50 years, my children and grandchildren and possibly enjoy the relaxation I hear about retirement, this was the year. Seasoned preachers in small towns can’t really retire until someone else is preaching over them, neither can small town funeral directors. I’m still in Bracey, still love the families I have served and if ever needed and if circumstances permit it, I’m not far away. Though it’s been a life’s learning journey, difficult and rewarding, stressful and humbling, dealing with death, the realities of this existence, the emotions of the heart, have taught me more about life’s meaning than any other profession I could have chosen. I’ll conclude with this thought, when our hearts ache, we grieve, but through helping, loving, forgiving and understanding others our lives will be comforted and meaningful to the one who allowed this small amount of time to make his world a better place. May you all find purpose in your lives also, through the one who gave his life for us. Love to you all.”
W. Randolph Hite
