History & Staff

Our History

In June of 1988, five Erwin, Tennessee business men, including funeral director Michael D. Peterson, formed a corporation with the purpose of constructing and operating Unicoi County's fourth funeral home. They acquired property on Main Street that had housed an automobile dealership, a tire and appliance center, and later a van conversion center. They immediately began the renovations to make the building suitable for use as a funeral home, including a new roof structure, interior walls, ceilings, carpeting, exterior brick, and paving.

On September third and fourth of that year, just ten weeks after renovation began, an open house hosted several hundred people of the community, and Valley Funeral Home began serving Erwin and the surrounding area. In February of 1989, "The Southern Funeral Director" magazine selected Valley Funeral Home as the month's feature firm. A photograph of the facility appeared on the cover of the publication, and a story with additional photographs were included inside. Valley Funeral Home has a church-type chapel with vaulted ceiling and private family room, offices, and a large reception area.

Since 1992, four years after the opening of the funeral home, Valley Funeral Home became the leading funeral home in Unicoi County. Since the start of Valley Funeral Home in 1988, Valley Funeral Home has been increasingly preferred. In 2002 the funeral home served more families than all other funeral homes in Erwin combined. We are proud to be the funeral home of choice for the families of Erwin and Unicoi County.