Fuller Hale South Funeral Service

About Fuller Hale South Funeral Service

Funeral Home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Our business began in 1866 as the R.H McFadden Company. As was customary in those days, the business was a hardware store and lumber yard, complete with an "undertaking" department, which sold "funeral furnishings", such as caskets, casket hardware, cloth for interiors, and exteriors, etc. We continue that business today as the oldest continually-operated funeral service establishment in the state of Arkansas, and the third oldest existing business in Pine Bluff.

Times changed, and the business evolved into a full-service funeral firm over the years. Our company's history is the history of funeral service in the United States, as many firms have gone through the same transformations.

Mr. McFadden, a native of South Carolina, came to Pine Bluff in the late 1850s. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and started his business in 1866. He retired in 1902 and died in 1905.

In 1887, McFadden hired a young apprentice, Harry I. Holderness, who was a native of Dallas County, Arkansas. Holderness bought the firm from Mr. McFadden in 1902, and the firm was known as the H. I. Holderness Company. Mr. Holderness was the first president of the Arkansas State Board of Embalmers. He was very active in establishing professional education and licensing requirements and was honored with embalmer's license number one. Mr. Holderness died in 1950.

Mr. Holderness had several partners throughout the years and took on Texas-native S. E. South as a partner in 1938. Mr. South purchased Mr. Holderness's remaining interest in 1941 and the business became known as South Funeral Home. Mr. South died in 1978.

Phil Hale of Hot Springs purchased the business in 1975 from Mr. South and owned it until January 2006 when he sold the business to Charles E. "Chuck" Fuller of Pine Bluff.

Charles E. Fuller Funeral Services was founded in 1998. Chuck has over 39 years of experience in the funeral service field and served in the management of two other funeral homes prior to opening his own business.

We are proud to merge traditions and serve as Fuller Hale-South Funeral Services.