Troy L. Pulliam Jr.
Pulliam Funeral Homes P.C. of Robinson, Oblong, and Hutsonville, IL, is the successor to three of Crawford County’s oldest funeral parlors, undertaking establishments, and funeral homes. The original Pulliam Funeral Home was established in 1948 when Troy L. Pulliam Jr. purchased the Charles G. Pearce Funeral Home in Hutsonville, IL. This funeral home was the successor firm to J. A. Parker & Chilton B. Rogers, later known as Rogers & Pearce Undertakers, with a location on North Main Street in Hutsonville. The collaboration between these funeral directors dates back to 1863, when the local undertaker did not have his own livery (horse-drawn hearse and carriages for the family) but instead partnered with a local livery operation for those services. Parker, Rogers, and Pearce were well-respected in Northern Crawford County and Southern Clark County, and they provided services in remote churches and cemeteries.
Charles G. Pearce
Following the death of Mr. Pearce in 1947, Troy Pulliam purchased the Pearce Funeral Home from Mr. Pearce’s widow and operated that facility while continuing his employment with Mr. Byron Lynn Root at Root Funeral Parlor on West Walnut Street in Robinson, IL.
Root Funeral Parlor was the successor firm to the merger between Ridgway Undertakers, formerly located on North Cross Street in Robinson, and Root Funeral Parlor. The Ridgway Undertakers firm dated back to 1886 when storefront funeral parlors and furniture stores went hand in hand. Not only did the furniture stores make and sell the finest upholstered furniture of that era, but they also made coffins and caskets, adorning them with leather, fine metals, and cloth. Some of the earliest coffins and caskets were very elaborate and quite ornate. Mr. Root’s wife, Mae, was his assistant at the funeral parlor and, being a nurse, served as his medical technician on ambulance calls.
Lynn Root Funeral Parlor
During his semi-retirement years, Mr. Lynn Root assisted with funerals from 1955 through 1961. Troy Pulliam continued the business operation at Root Funeral Parlor on West Walnut Street and soon purchased, remodeled, and moved the funeral operation to the former Bosworth Mills Funeral Home at 209 South Franklin Street in Robinson in May of 1961. Mr. Mills had died some years earlier, leaving his widow, Clara, and daughter, Maurice Oxley, to carry on the business. (In the post-WWII era, it was common for a funeral director’s widow to be “grandfathered in” by the State of Illinois as a funeral director.) However, to be able to embalm the deceased, the law was quite explicit that only licensed embalmers could perform that function. Troy Pulliam had assisted the Mills’ Funeral Home with embalming and some of their larger funerals for several years before purchasing the 209 S. Franklin Street property. The South Franklin Street location served as the main office or headquarters, with a major remodeling completed in 1969, and 23 years with the Hutsonville location serving the northeastern part of Crawford County with funeral services, as well as 24-hour ambulance service.
Byron Lynn Root
Pulliam Funeral Home
Oblong
In 1974, Troy Pulliam and his son Clark purchased the former Marshall Funeral Chapels in Oblong and Newton, IL. Following the acquisition of the Oblong and Newton operations, Clark and his wife, Janis, moved to Newton to operate that funeral home and the ambulance service there, in Jasper County. Meanwhile, a long-time family friend and fellow funeral director, Mr. Bill Wirt and his wife, Evelyn, moved back to their hometown of Oblong to manage the funeral home operations there. Business was increasing at all four locations, and along with that increase came the worry, stress, and mental fatigue for Troy, who had suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1971. Probably the best thing of all for funeral homes was that the United States government’s NHTSA decided that funeral homes were no longer equipped or staffed with trained EMTs and rescue personnel to handle motor vehicle highway accidents and other critical care issues. I feel it is necessary to speak to the success and the record of most funeral homes as ambulance providers. From our earliest post-war beginnings, at least for Pulliam Ambulance Services, we never delivered a deceased person to the hospital for post-accident or urgent medical care. We were first aid trained by Troy Pulliam, and because of his WWII Combat Medic training with the U.S. Navy, he was a skilled first aid instructor.
On August 8th, 1976, while preparing to visit his eight-day-old grandson, David Troy Pulliam, Troy suffered a massive stroke and died on August 10, 1976, at the age of 58. His death was a tremendous loss to the entire Pulliam family and to the funeral home operations. With new challenges and four funeral homes to manage and operate, Clark moved his family back from Newton to the main office location in Robinson to more effectively coordinate all operations.
As the business grew, it became obvious that the South Franklin Street funeral home was not large enough to serve the needs of the community. Visitations were becoming larger, funerals were better attended, and service volumes were growing exponentially. In 1983, land was acquired in the west part of Robinson to build a new, more modern, single-story funeral home with ample adjacent parking to serve the ever-growing volume of funerals. Troy’s fondest dream was to build a modern funeral home, as most funeral homes of that era were merely reworked residences, with little to no parking and insufficient floor space to conduct daily business on-site.
Troy L. Pulliam Jr.
Old Pulliam Funeral Home
Robinson, IL
Prior to the construction of the West Main Street funeral home in Robinson, Clark took on the role of General Contractor and dealt daily with subcontractors, bid lettings, and the ever-pressing decisions involved with construction. During site preparation for the new building, Clark, who became a licensed pilot in 1978, decided to purchase an ultralight aircraft kit to build and fly an ultralight airplane for fun and relaxation. Fate had other ideas. On August 21, 1983, while making take-offs and landings at the local airport, the engine on the Pioneer Flight Star aircraft stopped, stone-cold still. At that point, the aircraft had all the aerodynamic properties of a brick, and Clark, along with the ultralight, ended up in a bean field near the runway. Slightly more than four months later, following multiple surgeries, many hours of rehabilitation, and complications from pneumonia, Clark was back at work and helping with services. Construction of the new funeral home, with Clark on-site every day, resumed in February 1984.
Following the completion of the Robinson Funeral Home project in December of 1984, Clark committed to a full and complete remodeling of the Pulliam Funeral Home location in Oblong, IL. In 1986, construction began, adding a 3,500-square-foot chapel, new heating and air conditioning systems, a new selection room, and office space in the existing building, while tripling the on-site parking at the existing location.
Lola M. Pulliam
In 1985, due to staffing shortages and the lack of qualified, capable, and dedicated resident managers, the Newton branch of Pulliam Funeral Homes was sold to the former manager of the funeral home and his partner, thereby reducing the management headaches and the outstanding corporate debt load. With the sale of the Newton facility, life became somewhat less stressful and allowed Clark to focus on finalizing the building and remodeling of the remaining three facilities.
If that weren’t enough, in 1988, a completely new funeral home was constructed in Hutsonville, IL, comprising a 4,400-square-foot, ground-level funeral home for that city’s residents. Clark was again the general contractor for the project and participated in most aspects of construction. For over half a century, Troy’s mother, Lola M. Pulliam, who lived in the funeral home on Clover Street, was known to all Hutsonville as “Mom Pulliam.” She was a lady attendant at the funeral home and was the first face that visitors saw. She worked at visitations and funerals, answered the telephone, counseled and consoled grieving widows, repaired torn clothing for decedents, and was the matriarch of the Pulliam family. (Actually, she was more of a mother to Clark than his stepmother.) She retired from working at the funeral home in 1998. Lola died in 2002 at the age of 104 years, and, as Frank Sinatra sang, “Did it My Way.” She was a wonderful friend, mentor, sounding board, and a fantastic mother and grandmother. Her unconditional love, faith in her Lord, and dedication to her work were the absolute envy of her family and friends. With all the funeral homes now modernized and ADA compliant, it was time for Clark to give up the role of General Contractor in favor of being the hands-on Funeral Director and Embalmer he felt called to be. Continuing the timeline of progress for Pulliam Funeral Homes, in 2006, a crematory was added to the corporate operations. A building in the Ridgway Industrial Park was remodeled, and a large walk-in cooler was installed, along with a cremator and complete processing station, to ensure the prompt and secure return of a loved one’s cremated remains to the family for their final services. The hands-on completion of the cremation process by Clark is the only way to ensure that families receive their loved ones’ remains after cremation.
Pulliam Funeral Home
Hutsonville, IL
David T. Pulliam
With all the funeral homes now modernized and ADA compliant, it was time for Clark to give up the role of General Contractor in favor of being the hands-on Funeral Director and Embalmer he felt called to be. Continuing the timeline of progress for Pulliam Funeral Homes, in 2006, a crematory was added to the corporate operations. A building in the Ridgway Industrial Park was remodeled, and a large walk-in cooler was installed, along with a cremator and complete processing station, to ensure the prompt and secure return of a loved one’s cremated remains to the family for their final services. The hands-on completion of the cremation process by Clark is the only way to ensure that families receive their loved ones’ remains after cremation.
It was always Clark’s dream to bring David T. Pulliam into the funeral business, and following David’s graduation from Ohio University, Magna Cum Laude, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Specialized Business Services in March of 2010, followed by his graduation from Vincennes University’s Funeral Service Education Program as Valedictorian of his class in May of 2012, David had only begun his apprenticeship when he was killed in a single-vehicle accident on May 10, 2014. His dream of taking over the management duties of the funeral homes and my dreams of semi-retirement were all tragically ended in a single night.
Here it is, 2025, and as I am preparing to renew my Funeral Director’s and Embalmer’s License after 50 years of service, I find myself thinking back to what might have been. Then the phone rings, and I realize that I am still the one looking after all the details. Thank God for wonderful employees who share a great deal of the workload, and as for me, I plan to “keep on keepin’ on” until I am no longer capable of working meaningfully, because that is what I believe God put me on this earth to do.
Clark D. Pulliam
