Funeral home open again with new name
By John Joyce
Published in News on August 15, 2013 1:46 PM
The former E.M. Matthews Funeral Home at 401 N. William St. is back in business under new management and with a new name -- Community Funeral Home and Cremation Service of Goldsboro.
"Community Funeral Home is open and Michael Graham is the licensed manager," said Peter Burke, executive director of the North Carolina Board of Funeral Service.
The new business is not licensed for pre-needs service contracts, however, and does not offer pre-arrangements.
E.M. Matthews Funeral Home was closed by the board in May after it was found the business was selling pre-needs service contracts without a license and not depositing pre-needs payments in accordance with state statutes.
Eric Matthews, the former director of the funeral home, had his license revoked and is facing criminal charges from the Wayne County District Attorney's office for allegations of embezzlement.
The business re-opened briefly but struggled after restructuring without Matthews and eventually closed its doors.
Community Funeral Home opened for business "about a week ago and will be conducting funerals and serving families once (there is) a death call," an employee said.
Director Michael Graham was unavailable for comment.
In related news, another funeral home under board scrutiny willfully closed its doors in July.
Rhodes Funeral Home at 708 S. Slocumb St. is shut down, Burke said.
Rhodes was disciplined by the state board because of violations regarding its pre-needs services, but was given the opportunity to comply with certain conditions and remain open on a one-year probation period.
One of the conditions was admitting to having committed pre-needs violations; another was correcting more than 20 violations within a 60-day window.
"They notified us July 1 that they were going to cease operations. They did not want to operate the funeral home anymore, it was that simple, cut and dry," Burke said.
The number to Rhodes Funeral Home was no longer in service at the time of this report.