Manning-Heffern Funeral Home serves community for 150 years
Nov 21, 2018Breeze photo by Ethan Shorey)Owners, like others, take issue with latest taxesPAWTUCKET – Ted Wynne’s great, great, great uncle Patrick Manning, a carpenter, first came to the U.S. from Ireland after the Civil War, but quickly learned what many others knew about mills of the Blackstone Valley: “No Irish need apply.”So Manning began making caskets for Irish immigrants. Before long, he was also preparing bodies and giving the dead proper burials.Back then, said Wynne, Manning’s business was located on Water Street, in what is today Apex’s parking lot. Manning-Heffern Funeral Home and Cremation Services wouldn’t open at its current 68 Broadway location until the early 1930s. Back then it was next door to a mill, and nearby were a busy church, barbershop, food shops, a flower shop and other stores.Prior to the 1930s, most funerals were held in homes. The current location at 68 Broadway, overlooking the Blackstone River across from the Slater Mill, originally contained the family home.This year, the Manning-Heffern Funeral Home is marking 150 years in business, a remarkable run, said Wynne, especially in a business that’s changed so much.“Not a lot of small businesses are around that long,” he said. The people of Pawtucket have been good to us.” He said the work, though often difficult by nature, is rewarding in its own sense, with an unceasing attention to details and compassionate approach continuing as hallmarks of the company with roots tracing back to 1868.When Wynne’s great uncle, Jim Heffern, died in his 50s, his father, Raymond Wynne, took control of the business. Associated with the funeral home since September of 1950, Raymond died in 2015, and Wynne and his siblings have run it since.“I like what I do, helping folks out,” says Wynne.The business has changed remarkably over the past 10 to 15 years, he said. Funerals were once a very formal affair, complete with the bowler hats that are still displayed in h...
