A 'Celebration of Thanksgiving' for former funeral home March 14

IF YOU GO The public is invited to the decommissioning open house for the former Benson & Langehough funeral home on Thursday, March 14 from 4:30-6 p.m. A brief service is scheduled for 5 p.m. Beverages and cookies will be served. 777d4e18-f926-4c4e-9179-24b2d85b8b92

For 67 years, thousands of tears were shed by grieving Northfielders who passed through the familiar doors at Benson & Langehough funeral home remembering their loved ones during visitations, funeral services and celebrations of life.

Now, the building that housed the funeral home all those years, at the northeast corner of 4th and Washington streets, is receiving its own visitation service. Thanks to an inspired idea by a group of community members who directly intersected with the former Benson & Langehough funeral home, Celebration of Thanksgiving will be held Thursday, March 14.

The idea for the celebration stemmed from a casual conversation about the funeral home building being sold, explained Jonathan Davis, an associate pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church.

After one person burst into tears and another became emotional, Davis explained, “It dawned on us all in the moment that we should find our way to mark the care, support and love that happened in that place.”

Davis said a small group that included Cheryl Buck, Andy Langhough and Marie Benson, began to discuss how they could, not only give thanks for the role the building played in events that shaped so many lives, but also bless the space for the next role it will have in the community.

“It represents a place of deep care who are mourning loved ones,” said Buck. “We want to let both the grievers and the rememberers to be able to walk through one last time, like a visitation.”

The building that housed Benson & Langehough was built in 1955 by the Anderson family who operated the Anderson Funeral Home. In 1971, the building was bought by Duane Benson. In 2001, the business became the Benson & Langehough Funeral Home when Andy and Suzanne Langehough purchased it. Langehough partnered with Jim Bierman and the Bierman funeral home in 2015.

In 2022, both Duane Benson and Jim Bierman died.

After Bryce Beckstrand purchased a controlling interest in the business, Langehough said the decision was made to rename it Bierman, Benson & Langehough Funeral Home & Crematory and operate out of one facility located at 1316 Division St. S.

Langehough said he will miss the old building for the memories, not for the bricks and mortar.

“For me, it’s not so much the representation of the building. It’s the sharing that went on in that building at the time,” he said. “The sharing of the grief and the love and the happiness and the things that I was privileged to see, which are really represented by the physical structure of that building.”

The former funeral home property is currently available for rent.