KANE — Sam Cummings Jr. and Ronald McDonald have announced that they have reached a purchase buyout agreement.
Cummings Funeral Home Inc. will be buying and consolidating the businesses. Ron McDonald, or “Mac” as his friends call him, will be retiring from the funeral service industry. Under the agreement, Cummings Funeral Home Inc. will take over all assets and business interests from the Ronald McDonald II Funeral Home.
People who have their prearrangements set up at the McDonald Funeral Home need not worry. All prearrangements will be fully honored just as they were set up. There will be no changes to any of the preplanned funerals.
Going forward the funeral business will be consolidated into the Greeves Street location where the Cummings Funeral Home is located.
Cummings said, “I am keenly aware that many people have a connection with the Fraley Street location, but it is not feasible to own and operate two funeral homes in the same town less than three blocks apart. I hope to provide those people the same excellent service that Ron has provided them.”
The two men have been in conversation about the buyout for quite some time. Both of them realized that since the population in Kane has dropped over the last 20 years. Kane has really become a town that one funeral home can support.
McDonald will be retiring after 40 years in funeral service, 35 of those years in Kane. Prior to him operating the funeral home, it had been owned by several different people including Charles Freeburg, Gerry Goble, Jack Hill and O.G. Brown.
Cummings commented, “I am very happy for Mac and I hope he truly enjoys retirement. Most people don’t realize how hard this business is. We as funeral directors often hear ‘I don’t know how you can work with dead bodies,’ but that is not the hard part.
“It’s the emotional stress of dealing with people in the hardest time of their lives, the mental stress of trying to provide a perfect service every single time and the physical stress of being on call 24 hours a day 365 days a year,” Cummings said. “It really is a lifestyle that you have to learn to adapt to.”
Most people in Kane may also not realize that it is not common for competing funeral directors to form a friendship. McDonald and Cummings have maintained a business relationship and a personal friendship over the entire time they have been in business together.
McDonald has been very active in the town, including being a member of Rotary for over 30 years and also serving as its president. He also served on the Kane Alumni Scholarship Committee and offered his services for countless charities. In the not too distant past he acquired fame as one of the leading “Ronald McDonalds” in Taco Bell’s nationwide advertising campaign. He appeared on several commercials.
Cummings is the third generation to run Cummings Funeral Home. It was started by his grandparents, Bill and Cody Cummings. It was then taken over by Sam Sr. after his father’s untimely death. Sam Cummins Jr. returned from school in 1991 and began to take over operations of the business. He and his father worked side by side until his father passed away in 2016.
Cummings also has been very active in the town and plans on continuing that involvement. He also is one of the owners of CJ Spirits, Kane’s local distillery. He is a member and past president of Rotary, a member and past board member of the Kane Country Club, a member of the Kane Elks and Eagles Clubs, a past board member for the American Red Cross and the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau and along with his father a past president of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association.
Cummings said, “I look forward to serving Kane and the surrounding towns for the remainder of my career. I hope to make the integration of the businesses as seamless as I can and continue to provide excellent service for all the families of Kane.”
