Meet the man providing affordable funerals to the Historic Westside
By the time relatives had raised enough money for a funeral service, the corpse was unrecognizable.
“When I walked up to the casket, it was like I didn’t even know who it was. It looked nothing like my cousin,” Truman Brown said. “It was a real struggle to see him in that state.”
That moment, nearly 15 years ago, would greatly shape the man’s future.
“I wanted to learn why that happened to him,” Brown said of his cousin, whose body sat unembalmed while the family scraped together money for a service. “Because what I had to go through, I wanted to make sure no one else would ever have to go through that.”
Brown was a construction worker at the time of his cousin’s death, but his life took a drastic turn in the years that followed.
Eventually, he would land in a place surrounded by death, but Brown wouldn’t have it any other way.
In 2016, after years of nonprofit work in the funeral industry, he opened Clark County Funeral Services, a small funeral home in the Historic Westside, the heart of the city’s Black community.
‘God’s plan’
Brown, a timid 47-year-old man whose accomplishments contradict his humble beginnings, is a product of the Historic Westside.
Raised by a single mother, he grew up in Marble Manor, just blocks away from the funeral home he would one day open.
Marble Manor is a low-income housing development consisting of mostly duplex buildings in an area bordered by Washington, H, J and N streets.
“I think it was all God’s plan that I ended up back in the neighborhood,” Brown said.
Just before he was set to start high school, in the late 1980s, Brown and his mom left the Westside for Plant City, Florida, a city just outside Tampa known for its plentiful strawberry production in the winter months.
Brown remained in the Sunshine State until 1995, when he flunked out of college shortly after his mom’s unexpected death.
Losing his mom — his only support system at the time — as a young man wasn’t a factor in his career path.
“But it has a lot to do with how I treat people,” he said.
Brown returned to Las Vegas in 1995 and began working in construction, an occupation he had easily settled into for about a decade.
Until his cousin died.
A few weeks after the burial, Brown’s friend lost a grandparent. Distraught and confused, the friend turned to him for answers.
Do we bury or cremate? How do you decide? What does it mean to embalm a body? How do you get a death certificate? Where are we going to get the money for this?
“Those questions was the questions we didn’t want no one else to ever have to ask,” Brown said.
To bury his cousin, Brown explained, he and his family had to host several fundraisers.
“I’ll help you,” Brown recalled telling his friend.
‘A real need for help’
Motivated by their collective loss, the two friends soon would begin hosting fundraisers to help other families in the Historic Westside struggling to pay for funeral services.
“There was a real need for help in that area,” Brown said.
The work fulfilled him, but after a few years, Brown longed to provide more for his community.
And he began wondering what it would take to open his own funeral home.
The list of requirements, set by the Nevada Funeral and Cemetery Services Board, was overwhelming. But not impossible.
To name a few: be of good moral character, pass the funeral arranger license exam, pass a criminal background check, obtain a business license and a funeral establishment permit.
And, of course, find the perfect location.
One day, after months of searching and touring properties, Brown was driving down Bonanza Road in the Historic Westside when a large sign outside a one-story building near Tonopah Drive caught his eye.
BUSINESS SPACE FOR LEASE, it read, as if the bold, capitalized letters were screaming for Brown’s attention.
In mid-2016, Brown and his son, who lives in Texas, opened for business.
The team
Clark County Funeral Services is operated by a four-person team. Brown mostly works behind the scenes but often will make an appearance at services to pay his respects.
Brown chose his funeral director, Sheila Winn, for her warm personality and caring, motherly nature.
Winn is the face of the funeral home, Brown jokes.
On a blustery January morning, Winn sat in the office of the funeral home, filling out paperwork and sending out forms to complete death certificates. There’s hardly ever a break in the phone lines, but Winn smiles each time she picks up.
“Clark County Funeral Services, this is Sheila,” she says, her voice inviting.
During this particular phone call in late January, Winn sat up and reached for a stack of folders, thumbing through the paperwork, the phone pinched between her shoulder and the side of her face.
“OK, sweetie, don’t you worry about it,” Winn said, talking as if the client were her own child. “You take your time, and I’ll call you later today to check on you, all right, sweetheart?”
Winn, a Pahrump resident, hung up and explained, “That’s someone who can’t really afford a service, but we’re working with them. Whatever they can pay is good enough for us.”
‘Everyone deserves closure’
Brown and Winn have in-house payment plan options.
“I think we’ve got the right formula here,” Brown said. “We wanted this to be a place that everyone can come to.”
Sometimes, they offer their services for next to nothing.
“Everyone deserves to give their loved one a proper burial or service no matter how much money they have in the bank,” said Winn, whose work is motivated by the unexpected loss of both her parents within a year of each other. “Everyone deserves closure.”
Constructed in 1942, the building that houses Clark County Funeral Services, at 2041 Bonanza Road, was originally a residential property.
By the time Brown set foot inside the ranch-style building, the brick on the exterior a faded yellow, a chapel had already been built inside.
Those who walk inside the chapel, now, are greeted by a deep red, velvet carpet and matching pews. The color is a staple of the funeral home’s chapel, though for funeral services, the chapel is often customized to fit a theme or to meet the needs of each family.
In late January, a white casket with gold detailing sat at the front of the chapel ahead of a funeral service later that morning. Beside the casket, a portrait of a woman stared out into the room.
Winn stepped into the chapel to turn on the lights, pausing for a moment as she admired the woman’s photo.
The family members were scheduled to arrive soon, and both Brown and Winn would be at the front door, waiting to welcome them in.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.