Veile Mortuary 100 years strong in Worland

WORLAND - Veile Mortuary celebrates 100 years in business in Worland and Washakie County this year, with three generations of the Veile Family and one new owner taking the company into the future.

David Veile said his grandfather Fred Veile, who immigrated to the United States from Denmark, came to Worland from Potlatch, Idaho, in 1913. He said his grandfather was a lumber estimator and was sent by the lumber mill in Potlatch to work for the Cardell Ridge Lumber Company.

Fred Veile brought his future bride, Helga from Denmark, in 1914, and they were married soon after. The couple had a son in 1915, Arnold B. Veile.

"They had an opportunity to buy what was the Worland Furniture Company and with the sale of the furniture company came the funeral home, which was a common practice back in the day. The undertaker either had the livery stable, was a cabinet maker or had a furniture store," Veile said.

The purchase of the Ingrahm-Bragg Furniture store, owned by Laura Ingrahm-Bragg and Lee F. Doherty (the embalmer), was completed in 1921. The transaction at that time was for about $6,000, David Veile said. In 1926 the business moved up the street to 716 Big Horn Avenue, the only double-story building on that side of the street.

He said the family also added a Firestone dealership, a flower shop and the funeral home on the main floor. Upstairs was Worland's first real hospital, David Veile said, prior to the hospital move to Coburn.

When the hospital moved there were business offices including doctors, dentists and attorneys.

In 1953 the funeral home moved to its present location at 800 Culbertson. They added the chapel onto the home later.

LICENSING

David said his grandfather had to complete a correspondence course with an embalming college in Iowa and then completed the required apprenticeship in Denver.

"He rode the train to Denver and work there a week at a time and then come back up here," Veile said.

He was licensed in 1926.

His father was licensed as a funeral director through the Worsham Embalming College in Chicago in 1936.

The funeral operation had also operated the community ambulance since the 1930's, using the hearse as a part-time transfer ambulance. In 1975, the Veiles decided to get out to the ambulance business.

As for David's involvement with the mortuary, he said, "I worked for my folks from the time I was old enough to push a broom or dust mop. I worked for them in high school at the store mostly but if Dad had a call in the middle of the night I helped.

He attended Northwest Community College and University of Wyoming to become an industrial arts teacher.

Later with his father's health failing from injuries suffered in a fire in 1960, Veile began his apprenticeship under his father and then attended the Dallas Institute of Mortuary Science, graduating in 1969. He completed his apprenticeship in 1970.

Veile noted the other businesses were sold in early 1960s.

He said he started his apprenticeship while teaching school in Lander.

David Veile began as a full-time employee in 1969. David's father Arnold passed away in 1979. He purchased the business from his mother Elizabeth in 1980 and she passed later that year.

Why be involved? Veile said, "It's a service industry. That's what it was about, serving your friends and neighbors."

Veile held his license for 50 years, getting licensed in 1980 and finally letting it go last year, noting keeping up with the continuing education requirements was getting harder.

David's professional life included two terms as the president of the Wyoming Funeral Directors Association; 15 years on the State Board of Embalmers of which he was the Executive Officer for 11 years; nine years on the Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards – one year as national president and five years as the national examination chairman; two years as the chairman of the American Board of Funeral Service Education; 15 years as the Washakie County Coroner; and 20 years as a volunteer firefighter.

David's wife Diana became an active business partner in 1980 until the business sold to Clayton Draggoo in October 2016. David said Diana "did everything but embalm" for the business.

"I was 74, so it was time to retire," David Veile said, noting that their children, Brooke, Jennifer and Jarrod, saw the time involved and opted not to choose funeral director as a profession.

NEW ERA

In 2016 when David and Diana Veile were ready to retire, Clayton Draggoo said they approached him about the possibility of him purchasing the business. Draggoo had moved to Wyoming and the Big Horn Basin in 2015 when he purchased Atwood Family Funeral in Basin.

The purchase was completed in October 2016, since then Draggoo has worked to make the business his own, except for the name.

The name, he said remains. "It had been in the family for three generations. I kept the name out of respect for the legacy they left," he said. "It's a name a lot of local families have trusted for generations."

DRAGGOO

Draggoo said he knew since the time he was in the sixth grade that he wanted be a funeral director.

"We had gone to a lot of funerals growing up with our church and I remember a very prominent family friend of ours who was the fire chief for decades. He had died. The fire department was active in his funeral and lined the rows of the auditorium while the casket and the family entered. That really left an impression on me."

He added that going to funerals he appreciated the reverence and respect during the ceremonies.

He said he told his grandmother and she told him to be the best funeral director he could be.

Later that summer he went to his local funeral home and got a job doing landscape work, washing cars and other odd jobs.

"Every summer pretty much after that I went back to work for the funeral home," Draggoo said. When he was in high school the funeral home would send him out on nights and weekends to receive bodies.

He recalled a time when he had to cross the border to Canada to receive a body and when he was crossing back into the United States with the hearse he was stopped for an inspection.

"When I told him there was a decedent in the back, he said 'oh, you're fine go right ahead,'" Draggoo said.

After high school, Draggoo said he also knew he wanted to serve in the military. Three generations before him had served - great-grandfather, grandfather and father.

He was a mortuary affairs specialist in the Army, serving 4.5 years, including a year in Afghanistan.

After his service in the Army he attended mortuary college in Portland, Oregon, in 2002 and 2003, earning a two-year associate's degree, completed a two year internship in 2005.

After completing his schooling he worked in corporate management for a national funeral corporation, noting they own over 2,000 funeral homes.

"I did extremely well and I loved it but I kind of always wanted to own my own funeral home," Draggoo said.

He saw an advertisement in a trade magazine about Atwood being for sale.

One thing led to another, and he purchased Atwood Family Funeral Directors business in 2015.

Then came the opportunity to purchase Veile's in 2016. Draggoo has one full-time employee at Veile Mortuary - Alyssa Thatcher who is attending mortuary college and completing her apprenticeship with Draggoo.

CHANGES

Draggoo has been renovating the inside of Veile Mortuary with new walls and flooring, new furnishings and décor that includes items he accumulated from traveling around the world.

They have catering tables to allow for receptions at the mortuary.

He has purchased an adjacent lot to provide for additional parking and is working on designs for new outside entryways on entrances from Culbertson and the entrance on Eighth Street.

Draggoo is in the process of installing a crematory at the funeral home. He said cremations are increasing nationwide, noting in Wyoming the rate is over 50%.

"The fact that I have already installed the crematory in Worland is to meet our client's needs personally and locally," Draggoo said. He noted the city does not have in its code on where a crematory can or cannot be placed and the mortuary is the best location.

He said he looked at another location but while it was in a different zone there were residences closer than they are at the mortuary on Culbertson and Eighth.

In addition to changes in the facility Draggoo has seen changes in funeral services over the years.

He said there used to be a lot more in-person music and now there is more "canned" music.

Draggoo said operating a funeral home is not a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job. He said whether it is in the middle of the night, or the crack of dawn, a holiday or in the middle of a family event, "you have an obligation to your community that you're helping and assisting to appropriately respond. That's what I've done my whole life, I've dedicated my life to compassionately supporting families at difficult times.

"We have seen a lot in daily and weekly and monthly and yearly activity that we do. We help families in very tragic situations. We take care of things with the love and care the families we help appreciate and expect. When the families don't know what to do we guide them through those tough decisions and help them reach a decision that is comfortable for them and their loved one."