From the Winter 2025 issue of The Independent magazine. 

OGR recently caught up with Billy & Brenda Rogers from Gonzales Funerals & Cremations in Las Vegas, New Mexico about helping families with loss, working in a family owned funeral home, and more! Read this excerpt below, or OGR members can check out our magazine archive to read the full article!

Tell us a little bit about how your funeral home was founded and how it operates today. 

Gonzales Funeral Home was founded in 1938. Our family, the Rogers Corporation, bought it in 1972. I worked with my brothers until they died, then bought out their shares from their spouses and children in 2006. I have been the solo owner since that time. 

My wife, Brenda, and I have three sons and three daughters, but none of them are interested in being a part of the funeral home. I do have a granddaughter in high school who may join the business in the future. She has been at the funeral home since she was three months old. 

Your career has had some interesting twists and turns. Can you share where you started and how you got to where you are today? 

I was born and raised in a funeral home. I washed funeral vehicles, vacuumed the building and made cemetery setups. At the age of 21, after the death of my father, I managed Rogers Mortuary for 18 years. 

I then decided to see what else was out there and managed Cope Memorial Chapel in Farmington and Aztec, New Mexico. While there, I dealt with the Pueblo, Southern Utes, Jicarilla Apache, Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo tribe members. When the company was sold to SCI, I relocated to work in Denver and later Pueblo, Colorado. 

Following my return to New Mexico, I worked at funeral homes in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and finally returned to Las Vegas and Gonzales Funeral Home. 

You have known tragic loss personally. How has that experience changed your approach to your work? 

In June of 1980, I had the mishap of backing over my 8-year-old niece (my wife's niece), who died as a result of the accident. This took a heavy toll on me and my marriage. I ended up divorced and needing professional support. I took the Life Appreciation Training sponsored by Bill Bates and found that it focused on me and my life. It was tremendously healing. 

Having been on the "other side of the desk" I understand what the families I serve are going through. I see my profession as a God given ministry of helping people at the worst time of their lives. I try to help each family see light and hope at the other end of their grief just as I have. 

You now run it with your wife, Brenda. As one of the few husband and wife teams in your state, how do you balance working and living together? 

We have been married for 25 years. Brenda is our office manager. We have separate duties, so we don't clash. I am the sole funeral director at the funeral home and handle all of the embalming and even do some of the removals myself. Brenda takes care of our business operations. It has worked out very well. 

What does your funeral home do in order to create a strong community presence? 

I have been involved in the community in every place where I have lived. I have served on the Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis. In Las Vegas, I have been the President of the Little League, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Hospital Association and New Mexico Blue Cross-Blue Shield and former chairman of the Las Vegas Hospital Association. Professionally, I am the past president of the New Mexico Funeral Service Association and served for one term on the state board of Thanatopractice. 

To read the full interview, check out the latest issue of The Independent in our digital magazine archive.