Vertin Family Funeral Home

Mike and Sherry Worden, of Worden Funeral Directors, recently sold to Tom Walker, Paul Walker and Tom Vertin, the partners who own Walker Funeral Home. “Meridian means center, and just as you’re leaving Spearfish, if you watch on the side of the road, there are state highway road signs that say ‘center of the nation.’ We’re only about 60 miles from there. We think Newcastle is the center of the nation. That’s where that came from,” Walker said.Walker said Meridian Mortuary is a full-service funeral home; those services include funerals, cremations and monuments. Walker Funeral Home also has its own crematory in Gillette that will be available to Newcastle residents. That will mean better cremation prices for the Newcastle community, according to Walker. Meridian Mortuary is staffed by Marina Cullum, deputy coroner, for at least three hours in the morning, five days a week. Cindy Crabtree, the county coroner, is also on the staff in Newcastle. Walker said the plan is to have two people on staff from Newcastle, and both Cullum and Crabtree will do night calls and help with funerals and visitation. The Gillette crew will also be available to help with funerals and arrangements. Additionally, Eric Burquist, a pre-need specialist will come to Newcastle at least once a week to help people with pre-arrangements for funerals and cremations. “We feel like we’ll be an asset to the community because we have a larger operation and we can help people for more reasonable funeral costs and cremation costs, and we are definitely going to try to get someone working here eventually from Newcastle that people will know and they can put a face on it,” Walker said. “As far as funerals and stuff, we are going to do everything that Mike and Sherry did plus some. We look forward to serving the community, and we want to be part of the community,” he added, stating that he and his staff are working to increase their presence in the community to meet community need...