Blytheville / Arkansas / United States
Cobb Funeral Home was established in 1890 by Mr. J.C. Cobb. The original name was J.C. Cobb Undertaking Company - a small business operation. Because most people were embalmed at home, the funeral home did not have a preparation room or embalming tables. Initially, the embalmer would take his instruments in a large bag (much like a medical doctors bag) and what was then known as a "cooling board". He would embalm and dress the deceased person at the individuals home. It was customary for the family to come to the funeral home and choose a casket which would be taken to the home and the body placed inside. The "wake" would be held continuously at the residence until the time of the funeral. There was no funeral home chapel in those days. Most services were held in the familys church or at their home. Cobb Funeral Home still has an original horse-drawn hearse on the premises, which was used in those early days. In 1914, William H. Stovall, Sr., came to Blytheville having completed embalming school in Nashville, Tennessee. He came as an embalmer hired by Mr. Cobb. Within two years, Mr. Cobb died and Mr. Stovall, yet a very young man, formed a stock company with several local residents and bought the funeral home from Mrs. Cobb. As the years went by, Stovall gradually paid back all his investors, and the funeral home belonged to him. The first Cobb Funeral Home building was built on North Second Street adjacent to the present city hall building. It was built by Mr. Stovall in the 1920s and was one of the first funeral home buildings in Arkansas built as a funeral home only. This building is still standing and is currently being used to house private law offices. In the early 1940s Cobb Funeral Home was moved to its present location at Main and Sixth Streets into a building originally built as a lodge with private living quarters. The Stovall family lived in this building until 1955 at which time the building underwent major reconstruction and a new air-conditioned chapel was added.
