It?s the community staple that residents try to put off visiting, but after 143 years in operation, Eline Funeral Home in Reisterstown endures by offering comprehensive services so families can comfortably say good-bye.
“Anyone can sell a casket, nobody can provide the services we do,” said Jeffrey Eline, who, along with his father, James, runs the business started by his great-great-grandfather, E.D. Selbey, in 1863.
Besides being on-call 24 hours a day, filing death certificates, issuing death announcements and coordinating arrangements between family, clergy and cemetery, Jeffrey Eline said his funeral home offers a “pioneering aftercare program.”
“We help families with everything from how to cancel their loved one?s credit cards and dealing with bank accounts, to providing rides to Social Security,” Eline said.
E.D. Selbey, whose daughter Sarah married J.F. Eline, was a cabinet maker during the Civil War, the time when funeral homes were first needed because of the complexity of coordinating burial for so many men so widely dispersed.
Such simple origins are a far cry from what became a rush of national consolidation in the 1990s, led by Houston-based Service Corporation International, the country?s largest chain of funeral homes and cemeteries.
“But I could never sell out to a corporate,” said Eline, explaining how continuity, familiarity and community bonds remain at the heart of his family?s business ? one of the oldest family-run funeral homes on the East Coast.
Consolidation has cooled off in recent years as the price of a funeral has actually decreased relative to other goods and services, said Eline.
Meanwhile, the Elines continue to establish themselves in the community.
Edwin Eline (father of James) was one of the founding members of the Reisterstown Businessmen?s Association, the progenitor of the Reisterstown/Owings Mills/Glyndon Chamber of Commerce, of which Jeffrey is a past president. James is an active member of the Reisterstown Lions Club and Reisterstown United Methodist Church.
Both men attended Franklin High School, and twice a year a class from Franklin visits Eline as part of a course dealing with bereavement.
Lest anyone stereotype the Elines as dour shut-ins for decades of working with the dead, Jeffrey recently produced an independent film “Mentor,” which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, and no, it was not about the funeral business.
ABOUT ELINE
» Eline Funeral Home of Reisterstown
» 11824 Reisterstown Road
Reisterstown, MD 21136
» 410-833-1414
» Employees: nine
