O’Connell family celebrates 25 years

• Going out in style

A hearse pulled by a motorcycle drew attention from visitors to the O'Connell's Open House.

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The O’Connell Family Funeral Homes and Cremation Services held an open house Sunday, Aug. 21, to celebrate 25 years of service in the St. Croix Valley.

The original O’Connell Furniture and Undertaking was started in Hudson in 1926 by Frank O’Connell, one of the first graduates of the University of Minnesota mortuary science program. Following the death of Frank, his wife Myra took over the Locust street business until it was sold shortly after the end of World War II.

Tom O’Connell reintroduced the business to Hudson in 1985. A graduate of the same University of Minnesota program that his uncle had completed, Tom opened a new, modern facility of 11th Street. In 1998 the Dull Funeral Home in Baldwin was purchased and a new facility, complete with crematory, was completed in 2005.

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