Jackie Turner, a native San Saban, joined the Heritage Funeral Home team on January 3, 2022, working full time as a licensed funeral director and embalmer. In describing his job there he said, “I take care of families in their time of need and share my experience with them in a way that they can get a nice funeral that is affordable to them.”
Jackie earned his degree in Mortuary Science from Dallas Institute of Mortuary Science in 1972. He said that he knew at a young age that God wanted him to be a funeral director. Even before getting his degree, he worked at the funeral home, Howell-Doran Funeral Home, washing cars while in high school. He said “I started at the bottom.”
After working at Howell-Doran, he worked at Conger Funeral Home in Taylor, Round Rock, and Granger.
Upon returning to San Saba, he worked for Howell-Doran Funeral Home for a while, and then he and Joe Ragsdale built a funeral home by Mill Pond in the late 80’s to early 90’s. (This is the current location of The Father’s House.) He said there was great community support for the endeavor.
They were very successful the first year, but the second year was very slow for the funeral home business. He said that after the third year, it became apparent the city of San Saba could not support two funeral homes, and they decided to sell the business.
Jackie then went to work at Davis Morris Funeral Home in Brownwood which is now owned by Heritage. (Jackie noted that Heritage now also has funeral homes in Maynard, Brady, and Lampasas, and sometimes he travels to the different funeral homes as needed.)
Jackie noted he was out of the funeral home business for a while and recently had a landscape stone business here in town. He left that business to join the team at Heritage. He said the funeral business is very rewarding in a lot of ways besides monetarily.
Jackie never lost his compassion for people and serving them in their time of need. When asked why he pursued this job at Heritage, he reiterated his desire to help folks and said, “In people’s time of need, they need someone who is going to serve them and serve them well.”
Jackie and his wife, Patricia, attend Central Baptist Church in San Saba. He stated his wife is going to be the chief tax appraiser at the Central Appraisal District. Besides having previous experience in this position in another city, she has also worked as a hairdresser. Jackie and Patricia have two sons, and they were born and raised here in San Saba. One lives here, and one lives in Austin.
When asked about hobbies, Jackie said they play a lot of golf. He believes the San Saba Golf Course is one of the biggest assets of our community that does not get a lot of recognition, a hidden treasure. He stated it brings a lot of people into San Saba and is good for our economy.
Jackie’s message to the community: “Funerals don’t have to be expensive. I want to help families with their funeral decisions to help them choose a funeral that matches their budget and lifestyle. You don’t have to have an expensive funeral to have a nice one.”
If you would like to speak to Jackie about your funeral needs, you can reach him at 325-372- 3923 or on his cell at 325-642- 6994. He said he is available 24 hours a day to serve you.