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Larry
Bolen grew up in a coal mining town in a “patch” called Ralph near Uniontown,
Pennsylvania. For generations, the Bolen family worked the coal mines and
steel mills. Larry, however, had a vision to follow a different
path.
Larry first became interested in funeral service at the young age of
thirteen. His grandmother had suffered with cancer and lay
bedridden for years. When she passed away, and young Larry went to
the funeral home to see her, he was impressed that she did not look like
she was in pain any longer. Larry was also impressed with the
compassionate treatment the funeral home provided to his family during
such a difficult time. This life experience was Larry’s
inspiration as a future funeral director.
Years later, Larry moved to
New Jersey
and began working for a local funeral home in
Rahway
and
Clark
,
New Jersey
. He did this while attending college to become a funeral
director. After completing his schooling and working here for
several years, Larry’s love for what he did, along with his “do it
yourself” family values from his upbringing in the Pennsylvania coal
mines, lead him to decide to go into business for himself.
In 1980, Larry and his wife Joyce purchased the funeral home at
412 Main Street
in
Toms
River
from its 1950 establisher Robert Carmona. After thirteen years of
serving families at this location, Larry and Joyce decided to build a
second funeral home at
66 Lacey Road
in Whiting. For Larry this was a dream come to fruition and a
labor of love that took two years to complete, with Larry doing most of
the work himself along with the help of family and friends. With
the building of the new funeral home in Whiting, Larry decided to
perform a complete remodel of the
Toms
River
facility so that both funeral homes had the same design theme and could
better meet the needs
of our families.
Sadly,
in March of 2006, our beloved founder, Larry Bolen passed
away. Carmona-Bolen continues to be family owned and operated
and is dedicated to serving the needs of our families. Carmona-Bolen
is presently run by Larry's wife Joyce, along with Michael DeFonzo, funeral director and manager of both the Toms River
and Whiting locations. Michael has been with the family since 1990.
Keeping with Larry's tradition of being family run, Joyce's niece
Cherie Robertson has recently joined our team as office manger in
Toms River. Together Joyce, Michael, Cherie and our
professional staff work to carry out Larry's vision to
"Let
Our Family Serve Your Family"
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