Charles Strode and Glen Lyon opened Strode Funeral Home in January 1967 at 204 Columbia
Avenue, Tompkinsville, Kentucky. The building was built in 1910, by the Eagle Family, and was the boyhood home of the late
Joe Eagle, U.S. Congressman of Texas, and was the home of J.C. Carter, Sr., Circuit Judge of Monroe County. The land where
the building is located was once owned by the family of Preston Leslie, former Governor of Kentucky and Montana. This was
the childhood home of the late Congressman Dr. Tim Lee Carter; Mrs. Pearl Pace, first women sheriff in Kentucky; J.C. Carter,
Jr., circuit judge; Abe Carter, former attorney; Mrs. Mae Taylor, teacher and writer; Mrs. Jessie Harlan, master commissioner;
Mrs. Lizzie Bryant, homemaker; and Mrs. Vivian Hayes, draft board consultant. In 1970 the building was placed on the Registry
of Historical Landmarks. The business has been owned and operated by Charles and Dixie Strode since 1972.
Gamaliel Chapel was opened in August 1974 by Keith and Lorraine Baker and Charles and
Dixie Strode, who owned and operated funeral homes in Tompkinsville. The business was located in an historic home on Main
Street in Gamaliel. The business was purchased by Strode Funeral Home and a new building was built in 1990, at the present
location on Hwy. 100, located one mile from the Tennessee border, five miles from Hermitage Springs, Tennessee, and eight
miles from both Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee and Tompkinsville, Kentucky.
