Now 50 years since its founding, the Stanley Area Historical Society (SAHS) hosted a presentation on an even older community fixture Saturday: Plombon Funeral Home, located at Fifth Avenue and Broadway in Stanley. Guests arrived before 2:00 p.m. and signed their names in the SAHS guestbook, visiting in the commons area before gathering in the Alvin Mortenson Room off the entryway staircase for the presentation, which took place after 2:00 p.m.
SAHS Museum Director and Plombon family member Betty Plombon presented.
Starting with early funerals prior to the arrival of the Plombon family, Plombon shared that people had been in the countryside before Stanley came into being, with Elder John Chalkey arriving in the late 1860s to early 70s. Funerals in the early days were held at home (as were wakes), with area women preparing the body and burial done quickly, there being no embalming practiced.
As Stanley became a town the funeral business grew as well, with the funeral home placing a wreath with black ribbon on doors to announce deaths in the community and word getting around largely by word of mouth. Early individuals and funeral related businesses prior to the arrival of Plombon Funeral Home included those of W.E. Graham, Crane’s Department Store, Mr. Lauer (who handled Germans), Mr. Olson and Red Herrington, and Howard Cummins. Furniture stores were tied to funerals at the time as they made the caskets.
Started in 1925 when Vincent K. and Maryanna Magdelena (Wisniewski) Plombon arrived from Foley, Minnesota with their children, the century old family business has seen many different funeral directors through the years. Born in Poland in 1878, Vincent Plombon spoke four languages, including Polish, German, English, and Norwegian. Already a funeral director in Foley after having studied at night to get his license, Vincent was working long hours when told of a community in need of a funeral director in Wisconsin.
Stopping at Boyd before heading on to Stanley, Vincent liked what he saw, buying out Howard Cummins, who served the area’s Norwegians. Waiting until school was out, Vincent and Maryanna packed up their children and belongings and came to Stanley, arriving in town in 1925.
“He found out there were two Catholic churches, and he immediately joined both of them,” Betty Plombon said of founder Vincent Plombon. “He knew how important that was.” Area residents soon came to appreciate Mr. Plombon’s demeanor and knowledge of languages, with one ad from April 15, 1927 inviting people to “visit with Mr. Plombon himself, the man who smiles even when it rains.”
But all was not to last. Vincent died of tuberculosis just five years after arriving, and was buried at St. John’s Catholic Cemetery in Foley. Vincent had been sick in the 1918 pandemic and never regained his health, the long hours of a funeral director helping contribute to this. Vincent’s 20-year-old son Severyn then stepped into the role of local funeral director following Vincent’s passing in order to help his mother out, graduating from the Goodman College of Embalming at Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 19, 1930. Mr. Cummins took over as funeral director for a short time while Severyn was getting his funeral director’s license.
Compounding matters meanwhile, the Great Depression arrived, with funerals sometimes paid for in loads of wood and other cash equivalents. Severyn’s brother Lawrence “Bud” Plombon sometimes helped out with funerals as well, although just in high school. The times were more understanding on student absence, with students not present at school understood to be “needed at home.” Bud would later take over the Plombon Furniture Store, the business separate from the funeral home.
Severyn, meanwhile, went on to marry Genevieve Rivers, with both living until 1996 and buried at Holy Family Catholic Cemetery in Stanley. Severyn and Genevieve purchased a home on Broadway Avenue in the late 1930s for a funeral parlor, after its owner Mr. Herrington disappeared from town in the middle of the night and his property went on sheriff’s auction.
“The only people sad to see him go were those who had lent him money,” newspaper editor Mr. Bridgman wrote at the time.
As for the Plombons, Genevieve obtained a funeral director’s license in 1954 just in case of a sudden death as had happened to Vincent, with Severyn retiring in 1978. Severyn and Genevieve also founded funeral homes at Cornell and Gilman, employing people in those areas to service residents. One feature of the pre-internet and cell phone era touched on Saturday was the need to always have someone in front of the phone.
William Vincent “Bill” Plombon and his brother Keith “Butch” Plombon took over the family business from their parents following Severyn and Genevieve’s retirement in 1978, becoming the third generation of Plombons to provide local funeral home services. William served as a funeral director from 1959-2000, while Keith served from 1971-2010. With 12 phone lines in 1979 and a distinct ring for funeral calls, that meant a single funeral could cause the phone to ring 240 times!
During the early 1960s and prior meanwhile the Plombon Family also operated the local ambulance service in Stanley, then a less elaborate affair than at present. Directions to addresses were determined by rural route number and box number, with requirements including a station wagon, minimal supplies, and the ability to get to the hospital as fast as possible. Stricter regulations would start to arrive from the state in the late 1950s. While many stopped ambulance services as regulation came, the Plombons would continue to operate their ambulance service into the 1960s, due to a sense of needing to take care of the people who relied on them.
With Bill and Keith Plombon retiring before passing away (Bill in 2014 and Keith in 2024), the business then was sold to Keith’s nephew Dan Plombon, who obtained his funeral director’s license in 1994 and continues in that role today. Another family member, David Plombon, kept his funeral director’s license from 1983 to 2021, passing in 2021.
Following the local funeral home presentation a Trivia Q and A was held by Dan Plombon and son Greg, including the acronym GOK (God Only Knows) and pronunciation of Polish names, including Przybylski (“Chibilski” due to the silent p) as well as Rzyz, a name found up at Gilman.
As for the present day, Betty Plombon shared that the average length of time spent in the field by current funeral director graduates is five years, and that most are women. Milwaukee Area Technical College now runs a program at its West Allis campus for those interested in learning the trade.