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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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