Full History

Since 1927, when the first, "formal" funeral home was established in Neillsville by Herbert (Tubby) Lowe, there has been a strong tradition of funeral service here.

In the 1970s, Lowell Gesche purchased the Georgas Funeral Home from Elmer Georgas and changed the name of the business to the Gesche Funeral Home. For many years, Gesche Funeral Home served area families from its facility located at 158 E. 4th Street in Neillsville.

Lowell sold his controlling interest in the Gesche Funeral Home in late 1988 to the Vertin family, a third-generation funeral service family whose focus is on preserving and promoting funeral service in rural communities. Soon after, the Vertin family reinvested in the community by building a beautiful new funeral home, conveniently located at the intersection of US Highway 10 & State Highway 73. The new building offers many conveniences to families. Of greatest importance is that the single-level building allows complete handicap accessibility and operational efficiency.

Our professional and caring staff is always available to meet with and assist families in creating a special ceremony to reflect the life of a loved one. Our training and experience have prepared us to help, to reassure, and to understand when a family faces the loss of a loved one, and we want people to know that we will assist them day or night. Consumer education is also an important focus for us. The funeral home has hosted many tours from local schools, church groups, medical fields, clergy, etc.

We are very proud of Gesche Funeral Home’s most recent award by the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA): the Pursuit of Excellence Award, their premier program for honoring excellence and unshakable ethical standards in funeral service. Firms receive national recognition for their outstanding service, professional integrity and dynamic public relations programs. To achieve recognition in the Pursuit of Excellence Program, a funeral home must meet at least 31 criteria in nine categories of achievement: compassionate service, technical skills, community and professional service, library or media resources, professional development, in-house staff training, and public and community relations.

Although time changes many things, at Gesche Funeral Home we have always been dedicated to providing the very best in caring, professional service to every family that we serve. Our goal is to assist you in creating a personalized service, allowing family and friends to come together to remember, to honor, to support each other and to celebrate a life lived. We promise to continue this tradition of care far into the future.