Article 4

The Snapp-Bearden Funeral home was opened in August of 1984 in Branson. The Snapp family began in the death care industry by opening a monument business in Kirbyville in 1944, about three miles from the Snapp-Bearden Funeral Home’s present location on East Highway 76.

Shortly after Irven and Pheobe Snapp became involved in supply quality granite monuments to the people of the Branson area, they moved their monument sales office to North Highway 65 in Branson on what is now know as Branson Landing Boulevard.

In the late 1950’s, Mr. an Mrs. Snapp were made aware that Mr. Claude Binkley desired to sell the Ozarks Memorial Park Cemetery located on a very quiet side of Branson just across from Lake Taneycomo on East Highway 76 on Mt. Branson ( at the time this was a more rural area of Branson). Mr. and Mrs. Snapp purchased the cemetery in 1957.

Today the cemetery is still visited by people from all over the United States in the Fall to view the beautiful maple trees planted throughout the cemetery which is adjacent to the Snapp-Bearden Funeral Home.

After years of hard work and long hours of working in the monument carving and cemetery business, the Snapp’s wished to slow down, do some traveling, and dedicate more time to their trucking business headquartered in Branson.

When the funeral home began in 1984, it was one of two serving the people of Branson and surrounding areas. Many people of the area had suggested the need for more than one funeral home to serve the area in and around a quick growing Branson. The funeral home is unique to the Branson area in the fact of being located next door to the Ozarks Memorial Park Cemetery on East Hwy. 76. Often, if weather is permitting, family and friends walk to the final resting place of the deceased following the funeral service in the funeral home.

Darrel and Susan Bearden and the funeral home personnel take a great deal of pride in providing a comfortable and family environment for all those involved during the stressful time of the loss of a family member or close friend.

The Snapp family now has great grandchildren involved in daily activities in all three businesses, including funeral home, cemetery and monuments. Funeral service to the Branson and surrounding communities can be passed through generations because of the diligence and hard work of all family members involved in each preceding generation. The Snapp and Bearden families are dedicated to easing the burden of all families who come through their doors needing funeral care, a monument or cemetery property for the final resting site. The plaque on the wall of our funeral home contains more than words it conveys our purpose. It reads, “THIS BUILDING AND THE PEOPLE WHO WORK IN IT ARE DEDICATED TO HELPING THE PEOPLE OF THIS AREA THROUGH ONE OF THE HARDEST TIMES IN LIFE.”