Dengel & Son Mortuary

Grandfather, father, and now son, the Dengel family has served the families of Ottawa and Franklin County for generations. In 1947, Louis Dengel, the founder of our family funeral home, purchased the McVey Mortuary in Ottawa, Kansas. It was located at 235 South Hickory. The building itself, only seventeen years old at the time, was built to accommodate the needs of a funeral home, unlike most funeral homes of the day, which were converted large family homes.

Today, we are still in the same building, although it has undergone several major expansions since then. Louis, his wife Vada, and their two young children lived in an apartment on the second story of the funeral home. He operated the funeral home under the name of McVey-Dengel. He had the occasion to rename the funeral home again in 1961 to Dengel and Son Mortuary, when his son, Walter, graduated from college and joined him in the business.

The name remains appropriate today since Walter's son, Craig, joined his father in business after graduating from college in 1983. Louis had died 10 years earlier. The funeral home Louis purchased in 1947 has a long history and can be traced back to 1868. A man named Rudolf Volroth, Ottawa's first funeral director, operated the first funeral home out of his home, which was located on the east side of Hickory between second and third street.

Curiously, that could describe the location of our present day funeral home. Although that is an interesting bit of history, what is more relevant to the families we serve today, is the fact that for three generations, the same family has served Ottawa and Franklin County. Today, Dengel and Son Mortuary is owned and operated by third generation, Craig Dengel.

Craig took over the reins when his father, Walter, stepped down in 1998 to enjoy semi-retirement. Our family funeral business, Dengel and Son Mortuary, has grown and thrived because it has been nurtured by the same family for three generations, a family who believes the families we serve deserve the very best in funeral service at a fair cost.

The Dengel family, and the entire staff, understands it takes dedication and hard work to uphold our reputation for excellence. Luck has nothing to do with our success, good old fashion hard work, a respect for the people we serve, and pride in our profession, does. If you want the very best in funeral service, you can count on our family, just as Franklin County families have been doing for three generations.