Our newest funeral home, built in 2002, has all the accouterments of a funeral home built for the 21st century.  Our large chapel, and its spacious layout will accommodate receiving lines for larger visitations without becoming cumbersome.  As well as our other locations, this chapel can also be split into two smaller chapels via a folding, sound rated wall.

This facility also has a large entryway and foyer, our Bethalto location offers a nice area away from the chapel for people to visit. This location has the largest lounge of all three locations.  The lounge has two tables, a sink, a refrigerator, a soda vending machine, a couch, and access to a smoking area outfitted with two benches. The lounge is also home to our children’s area that has games, toys, and access to a television.  This entire facility is handicapped-accessible and located all on one level.  

Our Bethalto facility also houses a preparation room where the embalming, dressing, cosmetic application, and casketing take place. This location also boasts a casket showroom with eight full-size caskets and numerous cut caskets displays and personalization options. With an area devoted to urns, there are also plenty of personalization options for those who chose cremation

Our Godfrey location offers many of the amenities you’ve come to expect from funeral homes as well as many updated options. This location is all on one level and completely handicapped accessible.  This location also has two chapels: one serving as our main chapel, and one serving as an additional chapel for two simultaneous visitations or an overflow area to be used for services or to accommodate long receiving lines.  This location has retractable walls, therefore, the chapels can be split to accommodate multiple families at the same time, the second chapel can also be set up as a memorial tribute video viewing room with added chairs, couches, and tables. 

This location also has a lounge with many amenities such as a refrigerator,  soda vending machine, coffee station, and a television and DVD player with a few family-friendly movies,  cable TV, two table and chairs. Our Godfrey facility, built-in 1987, is home to Elias, Kallal and Schaaf Crematory to assure our families that owning our own crematory gives you the peace of mind  that your loved one will always be in our care.   This location has a casket room with multiple casket displays, urns, and models of outer burial containers and vaults.

RBGA Small Business of the Month - December 2016

As one of the longest established funeral homes in the Riverbend area, as well as having one of the largest chapels, our Alton location carries on the tradition of reverence you have come to expect from funeral homes, as well as having a cherished history. The larger chapel is a one-of-a-kind chapel.

At its largest capacity, it can comfortably seat 200 people, but it can also be split into two, or three chapels to accommodate multiple visitations. The “Robert Wadlow Memorial Chapel” is the smaller of our two chapels at this location, but it is rich in history.

As the name implies, it is named after “The Alton Giant,” Robert Pershing Wadlow. His visitation and funeral were held in this very chapel. He passed away on July 15, 1940. 40,000 people attended the funeral, and his 1000 lb. casket required a dozen pallbearers and the assistance of 8 other men. 

With a lounge and a spacious layout, this location can serve your family’s need.

Our Alton facility houses a preparation room where the embalming process takes place,  a hairdresser and cosmetic room where the dressing and casketing are done and our refrigeration system for those families that choose cremation. At this location, we have a large casket selection room with 15 full-size caskets and numerous more corner-cut partial caskets, as well as many options for personalization.  We also have a  room for families who choose the cremation options with a vast selection of urns,  urn vaults, as well as a selection of cremation caskets.

In 1954, Rose Lawn Memory Gardens, located in Bethalto, Illinois, was created by Edmund Sr. and Ellen Mense.    As you enter Roselawn, the first thing you will notice are the acres of flower, bouquets, trees, geese, ducks, and park benches. This cemetery is peaceful because of the lake with fountains, and statues throughout.

At its inception, Rose Lawn was created with a unique concept that everyone would have the same headstone so there would no be a difference due to  their income or status in the community.  All headstones are flat, made of bronze, and laid on a granite pad.

Rose Lawn features eight gardens, Living Christ, Devotion, Last Supper, Last Supper Addition, Gethsemane, Masonic, Christus, and Garden of the Good Sheppard.  There are three  mausoleums and one cremation niche unit called the Island of Memories located throughout the cemetery. 

The cemetery staff takes pride in maintaining the cemetery grounds.   They continually cut grass, trim trees, maintain the lake and roads, trim around markers, as well as remove all flowers and memorabilia for Christmas Blankets.  

After the Christmas season, they remove all blankets so families or cemetery staff can once again place fresh flowers on their loved ones grave.  Each season, the families or ground crew replaces the flowers with new spring, summer, fall, and winter flower bouquets or winter blankets on any marker where the family purchased the flower packages.

This provided service keeps Rose Lawn Memory Garden looking clean and fresh all year.  Another reason why you will find local residents not only visiting their loved ones grave but enjoying a stroll through the park's winding roads.  Families enjoy feeding the ducks, geese, and Shawn the Swan.