Site still owned by Johnson family, could possibly serve as a funeral home again
Published in the Sept. 30 – Oct. 13, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Editor’s note: Morgan Hill’s Johnson Funeral Home re-opened in February 2016 under new management. Contact them at (408) 779-7990.
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Johnson Funeral Home, in business in Morgan Hill for more than 80 years, has closed. Habing Family Funeral Home in Gilroy will take care of services for local residents.
After more than 80 years taking care of the needs of South Valley families in dealing with their departed loved ones, Morgan Hill landmark Johnson Funeral Home business has closed its doors.
“We’ve served so many different families from tragic deaths to people who have lived in the community for 80, 90 years,” said Michael D’Apuzzo, location manager for Johnson for the past 10 years. “There are so many different types of people who we’ve helped. That’s one of the things we strive for — to help people.”
The funeral home was founded by Edwin P. Johnson Sr., who followed in his father’s footsteps as an undertaker. Johnson earned his mortician license in Michigan in 1921 and later moved to San Jose, with his wife Meta and their daughters Dorothy and Bonnie, to work at the San Jose Undertaking Company. At that business, he was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Eventually, he decided to go into business for himself and rented the Lane Funeral Home in Morgan Hill in the early 1930s. In 1935, he had a new funeral home designed at the site at 17720 Monterey St.
It was completed in 1936 and named Johnson Funeral Home.
In 1958, his son Edwin P. Johnson Jr. went to work at the funeral home, earning his license in 1959. The younger Johnson and his wife Ruth purchased the funeral home from his father in 1960 and expanded the site to include an entrance foyer and much larger chapel with pews.
Edwin Jr. retired at the end of 1985. Ruth Johnson continued to operate the funeral home for another 10 years until she retired. The business was sold in 1995 to an affiliate of Service Corporation International and became a member of the Dignity Memorial network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers.
D’Apuzzo said the site is still owned by the Johnson family and there’s a possibility that it might serve as a funeral home again as the building is structurally sound and well designed for funeral services. The decision to close the site was made by the SCI corporate officials at its Houston headquarters.
D’Apuzzo, who grew up in Morgan Hill and the surrounding area, said he sees the funeral home as an iconic landmark in Morgan Hill because so many residents over the decades have come to the chapel to attend services to pay respects to friends and family relations. He has come to know many families well when they come to the funeral home and arrange for a funeral.
“A lot of what I like to do is ask how their loved one affected them in their life, whether they were a military veteran or something like that, to get a feel for how the family is,” he said. “For a lot of people, it’s very difficult. That’s why when you come to the funeral home you want to be helped and you want to be taken care of and you want the compassion — and that’s what we’ve tried to do.”
