Page 4 - Curry & Giordano Funeral Home Inc

Service Runs in The Family
The Curry Family
In the early part of the
last century, most
funeral directors,
or for the times
“undertakers” came
from the furniture or
carpentry business. So
did E.O. Curry. Around 1919, Edward O. Curry worked for William H. Croft, an “undertaker” who worked out of his furniture store at 947 Main Street in Peekskill.
Upon Mr. Croft’s death, Mr. Curry founded his own funeral home, operating from the furniture store for years after, for during those years there was not a need for a “funeral home,” because people would not let someone, the “undertaker” take their loved ones from their residence. The deaths occurred at home, the preparations most of the time were performed at home, the body was waked at home for days until the funeral service. It was a different time.
Mr. Curry proved to be something of a pioneer in the
profession. In the
1920s he brought
the first private
ambulance to the
Peekskill/Cortlandt
area, in 1936, Mr.
Curry moved from the
Main Street store front
to a house located on Paulding Street where they operated for three-years until 1939, when he purchased the grand ol’ home at 313 North James Street, that houses our present facility. Our building was built by and the former residence of Nathaniel Dain and family, who just like Edward Curry, was a local pioneer, having his own retail lumberyard down at the Peekskill waterfront, which is still owned & operated by the Dain family. In the mid- 1930s Mr. Curry’s sons, Edward (Ed) O. Curry, Jr. and William H. Curry, earned their funeral director or “undertaker” licenses and joined their father in business. Ed Curry, Jr had also entitled in the United States Navy, where he served as a First Class Pharmacist’s Mate also known as a corman. Ed Curry, Jr. had married and bore a son and daughter, his son Edward O. Curry, 3rd, during the mid-1960s, earned his funeral directors license and joined his father, as his father once did.
Page 4 - CURRY & GIORDANO FUNERAL HOME, INC.