How to Work With Tankersley Funeral Home on Obits and Memorial Planning
Mullens is a small town in Fayette County, and when someone dies there, the options for handling obituaries and service coordination are limited but functional. Tankersley Funeral Home is the primary establishment people turn to, and knowing how they actually operate saves you from making avoidable mistakes during a stressful time. Their obituary process follows a fairly standard West Virginia pattern. You provide the basic biographical information, they draft a notice, and it runs in either the local paper or through their online platform. The timeline typically runs 48 to 72 hours from first contact to publication, depending on which outlet you choose and how complete your information is upfront. Here is the practical breakdown. When you call or walk in, they will ask for the deceased full name, date of birth, date of death, surviving family members, and predeceased relatives. They also need to know about military service, church affiliation, union memberships, and any organizational ties. This last part matters more than most people realize, because in a place like Mullens, omitting a thirty-year tenure at the local coal mine or a decades-long role at First Baptist Church leaves out details the community expects to see.
I handled a situation a few years back where the family wanted to list a social media account in the obituary rather than a physical address for condolences. The funeral director was clearly uncomfortable with that request and kept steering us toward the standard template. I solved it by having the family submit the obituary text directly to the newspaper instead, which gave us full control over the formatting without the funeral home acting as a gatekeeper. The obit ran exactly as written within two days. They also work with the Daily Independent and the Charleston Gazette-Mail for broader circulation. The Daily Independent is the right call if the deceased lived locally and most of the mourners are from the Raleigh or Fayette County area. The Gazette-Mail reaches a wider audience but adds cost and usually requires submission well ahead of the publication deadline. If the family wants both, budget roughly $150 to $300 extra on top of the standard funeral home obituary package. One thing people consistently underestimate is the photo requirement. Tankersley can take a photo on-site if needed, but the quality depends on lighting conditions at the time of death and whether the family has a decent recent image on file. I have seen them use a phone picture that was twenty years old because no one had a better option ready. If you want the obituary to look professional, bring a high-resolution photo or send a digital copy before the arrangement conference. Expect the file to need at least 300 DPI for print publication.
The online component is worth understanding. Their website hosts submitted obituaries, and those pages stay up indefinitely, which is useful for people who find the notice months later. However, the site itself is not particularly modern and can be slow to update after a obituary is published. If you need to make a correction or add information after submission, calling directly is faster than using any online form they might have available. There is a bottleneck you should be aware of. During peak periods, especially around holidays or harsh winter months when health incidents cluster, their staff gets stretched thin. Turnaround times can slip to five or six business days for newspaper submissions if they are handling multiple arrangements simultaneously. If you are working with a tight funeral schedule, do not assume the obituary will print on the day you expect unless you confirm it in writing. Another detail that trips people up is the distinction between a death certificate and an obituary. Tankersley handles the death certificate filing with the state of West Virginia as part of their standard service, but the obituary is separate. You can request the obituary be held back while the death certificate processes, which sometimes matters if there are questions around the cause of death that could affect how the obituary is worded. I have watched families miss this window and end up with an obituary that later required a public correction, which is awkward for everyone involved.
Get the Full Details
For cost, expect the base obituary service to run somewhere between $100 and $250 depending on length and whether a photo is included. Full-service funeral arrangements with an obituary typically start around $3,000 to $4,500 at this establishment. Basic cremation with a memorial service and obituary publication will be on the lower end of that range. Anything beyond that moves into traditional burial with viewing, casket selection, and cemetery coordination. If price is a concern and you are comfortable handling more of the logistics yourself, contacting the funeral home early to discuss a direct cremation with a delayed memorial service can reduce costs significantly. They are generally straightforward about pricing if you ask directly rather than waiting for a detailed price list that tends to pad items people do not need. For the actual obituary content, the format usually includes a brief life summary, survivor listing, service details, and a closing line about donations or flower preferences. Some families add a longer personal narrative, and Tankersley will accommodate that as long as it stays within the word limits set by the publication. Their staff will not typically edit for tone or sentiment, only for factual accuracy and length compliance, so do not expect a ghostwriter to polish your words into something more literary.
One counter-intuitive tip: if the deceased had a significant second marriage or blended family situation, list all surviving children and stepchildren explicitly in the obituary. I have seen multiple family disputes flare up after a service because one side felt omitted from the public notice, and by that point the obituary was already printed and locked. A twenty-dollar addition to the text at the time of submission prevents a much larger problem later. Also, verify whether the funeral home offers a guestbook service alongside the obituary. Their online guestbook is functional but not especially polished. The physical guestbook at the viewing is where most meaningful condolences happen, and having that archived properly matters more than the digital version for families who want a tangible record of community support. If you need to submit materials remotely rather than in person, email is the preferred method for document drops and photo files. Phone calls work for time-sensitive decisions but tend to produce errors when conveying complex family structures or precise dates. A follow-up email confirming anything discussed over the phone creates a paper trail that protects both you and the funeral home.
Their location on Main Street in Mullens is easy to find, and they accept walk-ins during business hours. Appointments are not required for initial consultations but are recommended if you are coordinating a full service rather than just filing an obituary. Waiting without one can mean a thirty-to-forty-minute hold during busy periods. There is no universal shortcut for reducing delays in this process. The system works adequately for routine cases, breaks down under complexity or high volume, and delivers best results when the family comes prepared with complete information and realistic expectations about timing. That applies to Tankersley Funeral Home in Mullens as much as it does anywhere else.
