ABOUT US

Our Beginnings

Davidson Funeral Home has a long and colorful history of providing funeral service in Lexington and Davidson County. We trace our roots to John W. McCrary who came to Lexington in 1865 as a cabinet maker and sold coffins in his furniture store. In 1908 a young R. O. Kirkman, Sr. began working for Mr. McCrary and in 1910 Mr. Kirkman graduated from Cincinniti College of Embalming and returned to Lexington as the first licensed embalmer in town.

Over the next several decades Mr. Kirkman operated as McCrary Furniture & Embalmers, Kirkman & Penniger, Lexington Funeral Directors, Kirkman & Son and in 1940 incorporated as Davidson Funeral Home, Inc. R. O. Kirkman, Sr. had two sons who followed him in the funeral business. A. Victor Kirkman and R. O. Kirkman, Jr. They assumed control of Davidson in 1948 and owned and operated the business until 1989 when they sold the business to Jack & Joan Briggs who have owned and operated Briggs Funeral Home in a neighboring town since 1970, and to Larry D. Morrison who had been employed with Davidson since 1983.

A. Victor Kirkman died at the age of 88 in 2001 and R. O. Kirkman, Jr. died at the age of 87 in 2005. They both remained licensed by the state board of funeral service until their death and as long as health permitted they continued to work visitations and funerals spanning a period of almost 100 years of the Kirkman Family’s involvement in funeral service in Davidson County.

Dan Briggs serves as president of the company and Jack Briggs is company secretary. Joan Briggs, a licensed funeral director is vice president. Matthew R. Jernigan, grandson of the late Larry D. Morrison, joined the firm in 2006 and serves as Treasurer. The company built a second location in 1999 on Hickory Tree Road, a Winston-Salem address in the growing area of Northern Davidson County.