Our History

On March 19, 1949, a middle-aged couple, Christian and Lucinda Grayson, purchased the Young Funeral Home and Ambulance Service in Charlestown, becoming one of three funeral homes in the small town.

Christian and Lucinda had confidence in their abilities and knew if they did their job correctly and with compassion, their new business would be successful. With any new business, there were long and hard hours of work. Working together day and night, offering funeral and ambulance service to their new community, they conducted eight funerals in their first year of business.

The Second Generation

In 1952, their eldest son, James R. Grayson, was licensed as a funeral home director and embalmer. Upon returning from serving four years in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, he worked at another funeral home until his parents' business grew enough to support the two families. The business continued to grow and in 1966 the Graysons decided to build a new funeral home in New Washington. Like the Charlestown location, they offered funeral and ambulance services.

In 1968, Christian and Lucinda purchased the Barnes Funeral Home in Hanover, and their second son, Ed Grayson began operating this funeral home. It was destroyed in the tornado of 1974, then rebuilt and sold in 1978 with the retirement of Ed Grayson. In 2011, the Grayson family re-purchased the funeral home, and Ed and Nancy’s daughter Jean Reno worked at the funeral home. The funeral home was sold in 2017.

In 1969, Christian and Lucinda’s youngest son, Melton (“Buddy”) opened Superior Vault Company. The company manufactured vaults for communities throughout southeastern Indiana and central Kentucky.

In 1977, James and his wife Elsa succeeded Christian and Lucinda as owners of the funeral homes. Shortly thereafter, Elsa, received her license as a funeral director and embalmer. In time, their sons, Chris, Jeff and Paul, joined the business.

The Third Generation

Chris Grayson received his funeral director and embalmer's license in 1982 after graduating from Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee and joined the Charlestown and New Washington funeral homes.  

Jeff Grayson founded the Charlestown Monument Company in 1981. Together with son Nicholas, Jeff provided exceptional service to the community through Charlestown Monument until his retirement in 2022.

Paul Grayson took over leadership of the family’s burial vault company, Superior Vault Company in 1992 upon Melton’s retirement. Paul earned his funeral director’s license in 2005. Rod Reno, son-in-law of Ed and Nancy Grayson, co-managed the vault company in later years. Together with son Gabe, Paul successfully ran Superior Vault until his retirement from the vault business in 2021.

In 1992, the family decided to further expand their service to their community by creating Superior Crematory Incorporated. Now owned and operated by Paul Grayson, it has become the largest crematory in southeastern Indiana, offering cremation services, urns and urn vaults to more than 75 funeral homes throughout Indiana and Kentucky.

Today

In 2005, Michael Grayson received his funeral director’s license, becoming the fourth generation of funeral directors in the Grayson family to serve at our funeral homes. Chris Grayson supports the operations of the Charlestown and New Washington funeral homes along with Paul Grayson, who serves as a part-time funeral director and Katie Grayson, Chris’s daughter-in-law, who is a member of the support staff team.

You have our word that we will continue to uphold the values and tradition of excellence in funeral and cremation services that have been the hallmark of our family for four generations.