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How people choose to memorialize someone who has died is shaped in part by the communities they come from. In Philadelphia, that’s reflected in a network of funeral homes that have adapted to serve residents’ traditions.
Kenneth DuPree knows this because he owns and runs DuPree Funeral Home in Strawberry Mansion, where he helps families with a variety of end-of-life rituals. Across 70 years in business — conducting services like religious ceremonies, burials, cremations and memorials — DuPree’s business has evolved to meet the ever-changing needs of the community, he told Technical.ly.
“Funeral service is directly connected to the culture in which you serve,” DuPree said.
His parents opened the funeral home in 1956 and DuPree took over operations in the 80s. Over the last 40 years, he’s had to keep up with an evolving neighborhood and changing industry trends.
For example, cremation. DuPree Funeral Home first started offering the service in 1979. At the time, it was just a more affordable option for families. Now, cremation has become very popular and more families opt out of fancy services, no matter their financial situation, he said.
This trend is industrywide. Cremation rates have been steadily increasing over the last 15 years, from 40.5% to 62.8%, according to the Cremation Association of North America.
For DuPree, keeping up with trends and learning to best take care of his clients also means leaning on fellow funeral home operators in the city.
“Each funeral home has a circuit of funeral directors that they contact and that they talk to,” DuPree said. “We’re a gilded, connected industry.”
Continuing a legacy that began with his parents
DuPree’s father, Freud DuPree, enrolled in funeral service school after leaving the army.
His mother, Margaret, was separately studying funeral service and the pair met while doing internships in South Philly.
The couple opened their own business before DuPree was born, and he grew up in the funeral home, always wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps, he said.
DuPree became licensed in funeral service shortly before his father passed away in 1987 and took over operations. His mother lived until 2025 and remained involved in the business until her passing, he said.
A focus on comfort and community
Since taking over the business, DuPree has changed his approach to working with families, trying out different ways to make his clients feel comfortable.
Instead of always keeping a suit on hand in case a family called at the last minute, he has since learned that being dressed more casually often makes families feel more at ease.
DuPree approaches the families he works with by first trying to understand where they are in their grieving process, he said.
“Families need someone who is not as emotionally attached to assist them in a decision-making process,” he said.
He starts by asking to hear each family’s story to better understand how they might like to memorialize the person who died.
That could mean a burial or cremation with no service or an event for a hundred people, he said. It’s about choosing an option that best fits the person who died.
“We engage people at the beginning of that process,” he said. “So the question becomes: How do you memorialize the person that has died, and how do you create a memory that assists you with closure?”
As DuPree continues in this work, he hopes he can continue to provide a resource for his neighborhood, he said. Right now, he’s investing in upgrades like storefront improvements, thanks to a grant from the city.
“I hope we continue to serve the families that we serve,” DuPree said, “and serve new families.”
