Laughter Undertaking Company
Abilene, Taylor County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Dan T. Laughter (1871-1952) first worked as an undertaker while employed in a northeast Texas furniture store. In 1900, he came to Abilene, and five years later he founded this undertaking company with his partner, C. M. Tandy. In 1908, at the flip of a coin, the firm came under the full ownership of Laughter. Until the mid-1970s, the company operated an ambulance in connection with its funeral home. Since the early years of the 20th century, Laughter Undertaking Company has been a significant Abilene business institution. Supplemental Plate: Operated since 1945 by Russel and Willena North and their family; now known as North's Funeral Home. (1985)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dan T. Laughter learned the undertaking trade in a northeast Texas furniture store — a common pairing in an era when the same craftsmen who built cabinets built coffins — before settling in the booming West Texas railroad town of Abilene in 1900. He founded this firm in 1905, won sole ownership on the flip of a coin in 1908, and ran a combined funeral home and ambulance service into the 1970s. Under Russel and Willena North it carried on as North's Funeral Home, one of Abilene's enduring family businesses.
Why it matters
The marker preserves the story of how everyday commercial institutions — undertakers who doubled as the town's first ambulance — knit together life and death in a young Texas city.
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Related people
- · Dan T. Laughter
- · C. M. Tandy
- · Russel North
- · Willena North
Themes & tags
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