Our History

Our History

Funeral Directing is a profession, which involves not only devotion to the deceased; but in a far greater sense, a devotion to the needs of the living. It is truly one of the finest professions—one that has limitless opportunities for helping others. The friendly acts, the kind words, the sympathetic understanding all hold a place in the lives of those involved. No matter how great a man becomes, he never outgrows the need for human sympathy. It is this human touch that allows the entire world to feel a kind of kinship.

Funeral Directors have a very special opportunity to serve mankind. They deal with people who are suddenly lonely, frustrated, fear-filled, and insecure. Whenever these people need comforting most, Funeral Directors render very personal and sympathetic service. The desire to help and service anyone in need was really the incentive that caused Mr. J.W. Stancil to become a Funeral Director and the owner and manager of Pace-Stancil Funeral Home in Cleveland Texas.

As a young man, he lived across the street from a Funeral Director who sometimes was unable to attend to all of his calls, and knowing Mr. Stancil as he did, he always called on him to take over when he was needed. This was Mr. Stancils’ first introduction to the funeral business and the beginning of a career in service to others.

On a very hot mid-summer day in 1935 in a small town in Louisiana, three men, Mr. J.W. Stancil, Mr. E.L. Pace, and Mr. Perry Pace, were enjoying the afternoon sitting around talking of future plans when they began discussing how they needed a change. They wanted something more out of life, something they could receive satisfaction from, something that would help them to relate to people in a close and friendly way. This was the time that they decided to move to Texas; and after some scouting around, they decided to move to Livingston. There the three men worked together in 1936.

After working together for many years, they dissolved the partnership, and the Stancils and E.L. Pace moved to Cleveland and founded Pace-Stancil Funeral Home. On July 1, 1938, Pace-Stancil Funeral Home opened its doors for business in Cleveland. The original building was a two-story frame structure formerly used as a hotel. At this time the building was adequately remodeled to meet the needs of the funeral business and two insurance companies, Cleveland Standard Company and Liberty Standard Life Insurance Company.

Pace-Stancil Funeral Home’s motto through the years has been “Personalized Service” and that is exactly what it strives to maintain. Over the years, due to the growth of the business, the building has been remodeled several times in order to continue to give the best “Personalized Service” possible to each family.

Besides living up to their motto, Pace-Stancil Funeral Home also has had other goals in mind and some of them began to be within reach in 1941 when Mr. Stancil opened a second Pace-Stancil Funeral Home in Liberty and in 1945 a third building was built in Dayton; and in order to better serve the families in Chamber County, a fourth Funeral Home was built in 1956. The success of these expansions helped in the accomplishments of Pace-Stancils first goals. So this meant learning to serve more people with a friendly smile and a warm heart.

In 1962 Mr. Stancil was making a trip to Dayton in order to check on the other business when he had a terrible accident. His death was not only a great loss to the family but also to the community. Several acres, which now consist of a rodeo arena and park facilities, were established in his honor and are known as Stancil Park.

“If you can stop one heart from breaking—if you can ease one life from aching—you shall not have lived in vain.”

Pace-Stancil Funeral Home takes pride in what it stands for and pledges to continue traditional values that have been a part of Pace-Stancil since 1938.