Our Staff

Steve Douglas President and Funeral Director	Brian Douglas Funeral Director
Sam Douglas Funeral Director	Tracy Campbell Funeral Director
Darrin Douglas Funeral Staff	John Taylor Funeral Staff
Bob Jones Director of Pre-arrangements	Pam Gilmore Office Manager
Brandon Deck Funeral Staff

Our History

Origins Predate Statehood and Cityhood

By one name or another, we have been an important part of Ardmore since Oklahoma was territory and the city was but an idea.

The precise date of the firm’s founding has gone unrecorded. Little is known about J.S.B. Apollos, undertaker and founder, who opened for business in a parlor on North Caddo Street. When Ardmore became a town, Apollos was already established as the community’s first funeral director.

Today, Apollos would be called a funeral director. In the late 1880’s, however, the role of the undertaker was more limited. Usually, undertakers were carpenters who built coffins and picture frames as a sideline.

Coffins usually were offered for sale by merchants. When someone died, the family would send to town for a coffin. The undertaker would take his ware to the home of the deceased and prepare the body there for viewing, using embalming arts perfected of necessity during the Civil War.

But not always, a shootout between lawmen and bank robbers provides the first public mention of Apollos. When the notorious Bill Dalton, of the Dalton Gang, was slain in 1894, the posse brought the body to the Apollos’ undertaking parlor, where he was laid out for burial.

In about 1896, Apollos sold his business to Dr. W.J. Brown and T.C. Bridgeman. For the next 24 years, they operated Brown and Bridgeman Undertakers.

In 1905, a young Cecil F. Harvey went looking for work at Brown and Bridgeman. It would be the beginning of a 55-year career for Mr. Harvey as a funeral director.

Following Dr. Brown’s death, Bridgeman, who was administrator of the estate, decided to auction the business on Jan. 31, 1920. The high bid of $4000 came from Cecil Harvey and his brother Herbert.

For their money, the brothers received “coffins, caskets, ladies, gents and children’s robes and suits, casket and coffin linings, hardware, domestic embalming fluid, grips, instruments, morgue table, cooling boards, chairs in chapel office, desks, iron safe, Sayers & Scoville hearse, Rio hearse, Dodge Roadster, picture moldings, Pictures, frames and everything owned by the firm of Brown and Bridgeman, Undertakers.”

The brothers moved the business to it’s current location, an impressive brick building on the southeast corner of B Street S.W. and First Avenue. They called themselves Harvey Brothers Funeral Parlors. For the next 67 years, a member of the Harvey family was always associated with the firm.

Cecil M. “Bub” Harvey, the son of Cecil F., grew up in the business. He purchased the firm from his father and was president until 1985.

Steve Douglas, another Ardmore native whose family also dates back to territorial days here, began his career in funeral service with Harvey Funeral Home when he was a 15 year old high school sophomore. His grandfather, John Small, was a good friend of Cecil Harvey, who helped arrange the job in 1951.

“I’ve always worked here,” Douglas said. “Even on vacations from school and the military.” After attending Oklahoma A & M, Douglas in 1956 enrolled in the Dallas Institute of Mortuary Science and was licensed by the state of Oklahoma that year.

In August 1978, Douglas agreed to purchase 51 percent of the firm, and he gained controlling interest in 1988.

Douglas’ sons, Brian and Sam, also have been associated with the firm since their school days. Brian attended Oklahoma State University and graduated from mortuary school in Dallas. He is vice president of the firm.

Sam Douglas, Secretary of the firm, received his associate degree in business from St. Gregory College and also attended Oklahoma State University. He also graduated from the Dallas Mortuary Institute and is a licensed funeral director with the firm.

Darrin Douglas received his BS degree from Oklahoma State University school of Arts in 1991 and for ten years pursued a career in marketing with Tracy Locke Advertising Agency, A division of Omnicom, Inc, in Dallas, TX. He rejoined the funeral firm in 2003 as Treasurer.

Through many, many years of uninterrupted service, Harvey-Douglas has been a case study in the changes experienced by the funeral home industry.

“Our industry has evolved and matured, as others have,” Steve Douglas says today. “But through all the changes and the ups and downs, some things have been constant. Our commitment to honesty, dignity and value. And our genuine caring for our neighbors. I hope that my sucecessors can say that.”

Today, Harvey-Douglas Funeral Home is 100 percent owned and operated by the Douglas Family.