Trout Funeral Home

“The calling of the funeral director is to be here when someone is in need. To be there no matter the time, or the conditions. To be there with words of comfort and concern. To be there to give quiet guidance through the storm. To be there for the final tribute that honors a life.”

~Doug Manning, Grief Expert and Best-Selling Author

Standing proudly on the west part of Grand Avenue in Ponca City is a building filled with people and services that have helped multitudes of area citizens over the years. The funeral home was founded as a family business in 1936 by Ernest M. Trout and his sons. Although originally located at Oak and Grand Avenue, the current location at 505 West Grand Avenue was purchased in 1943 and has been renovated and updated numerous times since then. Their offerings even included 24-hour-a-day ambulance service until 1968. Originally founded on the principles of “Character, Confidence, Value and Trust,” those who have since owned the business have continued with these principles.

In 1977 the Hustons purchased the business. Steve and Terry took the building and business through several remodeling and updating phases from the time they purchased it through 1994, making certain it was one of the very best in Oklahoma. By this time, the business had merged with Gill-Lessert Funeral Home, and that Home’s experienced staff joined their own to even better serve the community.

In 2003 Mike Sr. and Jo Phenix purchased Trout Funeral Home, as well as Resthaven-Sunset Memorial Parks, to continue the care of Ponca City families with continuous family ownership of this important service. Phenix’s journey to this ownership led him through a variety of experiences on his path to Ponca City. Prior to this time, he had owned a funeral home where he grew up in western Oklahoma. He had previously worked for the City of Erick, Oklahoma, and had noticed a gentleman in the community who was always dressed nice for work and played golf, and as a young man Mike wondered about him. He found out he was the owner of the local funeral home and ended up working for him, purchasing the business from him 10 years later.

Later, Jo decided she wanted to return to college, and they moved to Norman. Mike calls it their midlife crises, since she went back to school at 35 years of age and he worked a variety of jobs during the time of her education and their later return to Norman after a time in Ponca City. One of those jobs was working here for Steve Huston. Even though they later had made a move back to Norman for Jo’s career, Huston called with an offer for them to return to Ponca City. Mike says, “Steve gave me an opportunity to come back, and I did.” They even discussed the eventual opportunity of purchasing the Home from Huston, and that is precisely what occurred when Huston was ready to retire.

Discussing the importance of the business, Phenix says, “The most important aspect for me is, since 1936, phones have been answered 24 hours a day.” He explains that this is one of the only private businesses that is open and available 24/7. This availability and the stress that comes with being there for families and friends in their deepest grief, leads to the need to have well-taken care of staff who also look out for one another. In a community this size, they will inevitably make arrangements for people they care about. This often leads to high levels of burnout from the trauma the staff deal with in others and often have themselves.

Phenix has a solid staff that he explains he is very fortunate to have working with him. At this time in their lives, Mike and Jo spend the coldest parts of the year in the warmer climate of California to better take care of Jo’s health. He says, “It’s nice to be able to get away and not worry because we have a great staff.” On the day of my visit, they were both happy to be back at the place they call home.

Of the many challenges of this type of service, Phenix says one unique to our community is the great cultural differences. This is an exciting challenge in a community of this size since it’s usually only found in larger cities. However, they have had the pleasure of working with families who have differing traditions, such as Jewish and Vietnamese traditions, along with many others, that often vary greatly from those they traditionally work with. This positive challenge, and their approach to these cultural differences, allows them to serve their clients well. Their mission is to make families comfortable in the service provided to them and their loved one.

Other challenges include medical ones. They had already dealt with the possibility of Hep C and AIDS for numerous years, but then the pandemic brought on fears of COVID-19 as well. This issue created extra levels of stress for families already suffering from the loss of a loved one and then having to deal with the issue of COVID-19 during their illness and afterward. Families struggled, friends struggled, emergency and funeral home workers struggled and the business changed in unexpected ways.

Many times, only family could attend funeral services due to COVID-19-related illness and death, and sometimes not even all of them could attend. This led to Trout Funeral Home purchasing more and better cameras and other equipment to stream memorial services. This was a free service offered during the pandemic, but it is one that is an option even now for family and friends to be able to watch the service live from a distance if they cannot attend in person.

Luckily, technology needs were upgrades Trout Funeral Home was ready for. Mike Jr., son of Mike Sr. and Jo, is a sound engineer and technician and was ready to tackle the new needs of the industry. They all feel fortunate to have managed to grow and change in the ways needed to better serve their community.

For the family, community service ranks high. Both Mike and Jo have volunteered in different areas of the Ponca City community, with Mike even having served as chair of the Marland Commission in the past, as well as work with the Child Development Center and sponsorships with the Poncan Theatre. They continue as members of the Chamber of Commerce. Mike says, “Ponca City is one of the giving-est communities I’ve ever lived in.”

The staff at Trout Funeral Home help people come together to remember a person, a life. Mike says they do this when they help organize a memorial service, and that at Resthaven, they are “keepers of memories” and a place where people can visit their loved ones in the future. A place to remember and honor a life.