Stewart Enterprises, Inc. was the second largest provider of funeral and cemetery services in the

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. The company is headquartered in Jefferson, Louisiana and employs nearly 5,400 people in 218 funeral homes and 140 cemeteries in 24 states and

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

. The company was publicly traded and listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol STEI. Frank B. Stewart, Jr. serves as chairman of the board. Thomas J. Crawford is president and chief executive officer. Thomas M. Kitchen is senior executive vice president and chief financial officer. In December 2013, Service Corporation International completed its previously announced acquisition of Stewart Enterprises at a $1.4 billion price.

History

Stewart Enterprises was founded in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

in 1910 by Albert Stewart, owner of the Acme Realty Company, when his

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

business acquired the three St. Vincent de Paul Cemeteries and the St. Vincent de Paul Marble Shop, a company that built monuments for the cemeteries. Stewart kept both businesses, and they flourished. By 1931, his sons Frank Sr. and Charles incorporated the business as the Acme Marble & Granite Co. In 1949, the company established Lake Lawn Park Cemetery in New Orleans and developed a large perpetual-care community mausoleum with more than 31,000 crypts. In 1969, under the tutelage of President Frank B. Stewart, Jr. (Albert's grandson), the company purchased the adjoining

Metairie Cemetery Metairie Cemetery is a cemetery in southeastern Louisiana. The name has caused some people to mistakenly presume that the cemetery is located in Metairie, Louisiana, but it is located within the New Orleans city limits, on Metairie Road (and fo ...

Expansion

In the 1980s, Stewart expanded from its base in Louisiana and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

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Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

. The company went public in 1991, and, over the next several years, expanded to 30 states and 12 countries. In 1997, the firm announced a partnership with the Archdiocese of

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for the building and construction of funeral homes on nine of the Church's cemeteries and management of preneed sales at 11 cemeteries. Stewart Enterprises celebrated its centennial on April 26, 2010.

Associations

Stewart's associated businesses and affiliations include the Acme Mausoleum Corporation in Texas and Louisiana; Tributes.com, an online memorial site; and Investor Trust, Inc. (ITI), a wholly owned, Texas-based investment firm for preneed trust and the company's portfolio. Stewart owns a number of historic cemeteries including Metairie Cemetery (Metairie, La.), Royal Palm Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home (West Palm Beach, Fla.), and Wisconsin Memorial Park (Brookfield, Wis.). Approximately 41 percent of Stewart's business is located in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, Florida and Texas, states that have high proportions of senior citizens.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Stewart Enterprises Official Website
Companies based in Louisiana American companies established in 1910 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Death care companies of the United States 1910 establishments in Louisiana