90+ Years of Celebrating Life

Primrose Funeral Service looks back on nearly a century of business in Norman

BY: Roxanne Avery

In the 90 years of Primrose Funeral Service’ existence, a lot has changed in the world including a pandemic that continues to modify our lives and how we conduct business. To honor such an exceptional milestone, the staff at Primrose Funeral Service had plans for a big celebration but with COVID-19 still lingering, the party will have to wait for now.

In the meantime, the community and staff are looking back at nearly a century of business, which puts Primrose in a prestigious category as one of the oldest continuous businesses in Norman.

Jansing-Primrose Funeral Home, as it was originally named, was established by George Jansing and Odies Primrose in 1931 but the partnership split in 1943. Jansing opened another funeral home that would later become Mayes Funeral Home.

In 1947, Primrose moved into a stately Victorian farmhouse near the corner of East Robinson and Porter Avenue, convenient to the Norman hospital. Staff member Larry Montgomery, a 46-year veteran of Primrose and now retired, said back then, the funeral home ran the ambulance services.

“We had the ambulance service until 1971,” Montgomery said. “There was a mutual agreement between the two local funeral homes, the City of Norman and a firm called the Norman Ambulance Company. The ambulance company was independently owned first and then the City of Norman took it over.”

In 1973, a second generation of the Primrose family ownership began with Ben Primrose and continued until his retirement in 1994. Both Ben and his father were licensed funeral directors, and Odies held a 50-year service pin with the Oklahoma Funeral Directors Association.

Rebecca (Becca) Hart works as the office manager, funeral director and a licensed professional embalmer at Primrose. During her twenty-year career, she said one of the biggest changes in the industry has been to the structure of service.

“Death is no longer a taboo subject,” Hart said. “It used to be people were somber, wore black and were grieving but that is no longer the case. We don’t use the term funeral either. It’s a memorial or celebration of life service.”

Hart said families are offered music, photos, a video and customization to honor the life of their loved one.

“We can play contemporary music, rock and roll, country, all kinds of different stuff,” Hart said. “We’ve even played Metallica, ACDC and have prepared everything from shots to champagne toasts. We’ve brought in motorcycles, boats, anything that celebrates the person and their life.”

Now owned by Service Corp. International (SCI), Primrose strives to offer a welcoming atmosphere designed to make families feel comfortable and features a large and inviting foyer, visitation rooms for comfort and reflection and a warm chapel, rebuilt in 2014.

Montgomery said he remembers a time not so long ago where Odies Primrose handled business a little bit differently.

“It used to be that Norman was small enough everyone knew everybody. Mr. Primrose knew everyone, and everyone knew him,” he shared.

Montgomery remarked that he especially remembered how Odies accommodated people when paying for a service.

“I’ve seen him take livestock, used vehicles, boats, whatever they had, to pay for a funeral,” Montgomery remembered. “We also had people who would come in and pay $10 month for their pre-need funerals and it was always $10. That was a lot of money back then. It was always due on the first day of the month until they paid the $200 total.”

Primrose Funeral Services still honors those $200 burial association credits today, although Hart said there are not many of them left.

Hart said they plan to set a date for their celebration later in the year and will likely wait until the end of summer before setting a date.

“Hopefully things will calm down by then,” Hart said. “At this point, we want everyone to stay safe.” – BSM