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About Us

Our History

"Family owned and operated funeral home."

Starkson exterior

About Us

was built on the strong values that were put in place by two long standing Hastings Funeral Homes that came together to better serve the Hastings Community. Caturia - Smidt Funeral Home and Wise Family Funeral Home have brought together the strongest roots, professionalism and service that began decades ago.


The history of the Caturia Funeral Home was started in 1942 by Clinton H. Caturia. Clinton ran the funeral home until 1969 when his son Robert Caturia took over the daily operations of the business. Robert operated the funeral business until selling it in 1997 to long time employee Steven Smidt, who started working for Robert in 1981. Steve and Kim Smidt later sold the funeral home in 2016 to their well-respected employee, Jesse Starkson and his wife, Katie.

The History of the Wise Family Funeral and Cremation Service dates back to 1955 when Don Ellis and his wife Peach started Ellis Funeral Home. In 1984, Thomas Ellis bought the funeral home and carried out the operations of the business until 2001 when he sold to Michael Wise and his wife, Mary. Michael and Mary Wise owned and operated the business for 17 years. In August 2018, Michael and Mary Wise sold their business to the Starkson Family to better serve the Hastings area. This history-changing opportunity brings longevity, continued dedication, and expanded professional funeral service to Hastings. One of these major expansions was for the Starkson Family to build a state-of-the-art facility to the community for families to gather to Celebrate their loved ones. Another addition during this build was for us to bring our own crematory into this location to allow families the opportunity to know their loved ones never leave our professional and caring staff.


Today, the Starkson Family Life Celebration Chapel is proud to continue the unmatched service and commitment that the Caturia, Smidt and Wise Families provided to the Hastings and surrounding communities, for years to come.

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Online Memorial

We can create a customized, online memorial for you to share with family and friends. The memorial includes the obituary and any photographs you wish to provide. It will serve as a place for visitors to post condolences, share memories, upload photos, and light candles in honor of your loved one.

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Tribute Video

We can produce a personal tribute video that can be played at the service and online. Simply provide us with the photographs you want to include and we will transform them into a video celebration of your treasured memories. DVDs or digital files of the video are also available.

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Ordering Flowers

We make it easy for friends and family to send flowers to your home or service to honor your loved one. We have partnered with local florists to offer the convenience of ordering directly from the obituary page of our website. You can also use this feature to select the flowers you would like at the service. This is a secure way to choose beautiful arrangements from the privacy and comfort of your home.

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Sharing Service Details

We reduce the stress of contacting those who need the details of the service for your loved one. We post the dates and times of the service as part of the online memorial on our website. You can then either share the memorial on your Facebook or Twitter page or copy the details from the site into an email or text. Both options give you the peace of mind that you have provided the necessary information to those who need it.

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