Valhalla-Gaerdner-Holten Funeral Home & Valhalla Gardens

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Valhalla-Gaerdner-Holten Funeral Home & Valhalla Gardens

Louis area. We also can assist in your time of need nationally and internationally.

Valhalla-Gaerdner-Holten Funeral Home and Valhalla Gardens of Memory serve families in the Belleville, Illinois area and throughout the Metro East and Greater St.

09/24/2025

We have the best neighbors here! Jan walks her huskies here every day. Rudy and Max are just 2 of the 5 rescues she has! And they love our RJ ❤️🐶❤️. Pet Blessing here on Sat, Oct 4! Bring your beasts !

09/16/2025

A super cool option for ocean lovers!

InvestigateTV+ reveals how some families make a dying commitment to sustainability through alternative burials.

09/11/2025

What an awesome day it was today to honor our local First Responders with a breakfast on the anniversary of a day we will never forget.

We can’t thank these men and women (and their families) enough for putting themselves in harm’s way to protect and serve our community!

Bless you for your service 🖤❤️🖤 💙🖤

09/08/2025

✨Expected Death ~ When someone dies, the first thing to do is nothing. Don't run out and call the nurse. Don't pick up the phone. Take a deep breath and be present to the magnitude of the moment.

There's a grace to being at the bedside of someone you love as they make their transition out of this world. At the moment they take their last breath, there's an incredible sacredness in the space. The veil between the worlds opens.

We're so unprepared and untrained in how to deal with death that sometimes a kind of panic response kicks in. "They're dead!"

We knew they were going to die, so their being dead is not a surprise. It's not a problem to be solved. It's very sad, but it's not cause to panic.

If anything, their death is cause to take a deep breath, to stop, and be really present to what's happening. If you're at home, maybe put on the kettle and make a cup of tea.

Sit at the bedside and just be present to the experience in the room. What's happening for you? What might be happening for them? What other presences are here that might be supporting them on their way? Tune into all the beauty and magic.

Pausing gives your soul a chance to adjust, because no matter how prepared we are, a death is still a shock. If we kick right into "do" mode, and call 911, or call the hospice, we never get a chance to absorb the enormity of the event.

Give yourself five minutes or 10 minutes, or 15 minutes just to be. You'll never get that time back again if you don't take it now.

After that, do the smallest thing you can. Call the one person who needs to be called. Engage whatever systems need to be engaged, but engage them at the very most minimal level. Move really, really, really, slowly, because this is a period where it's easy for body and soul to get separated.

Our bodies can gallop forwards, but sometimes our souls haven't caught up. If you have an opportunity to be quiet and be present, take it. Accept and acclimatize and adjust to what's happening. Then, as the train starts rolling, and all the things that happen after a death kick in, you'll be better prepared.

You won't get a chance to catch your breath later on. You need to do it now.

Being present in the moments after death is an incredible gift to yourself, it's a gift to the people you're with, and it's a gift to the person who's just died. They're just a hair's breadth away. They're just starting their new journey in the world without a body. If you keep a calm space around their body, and in the room, they're launched in a more beautiful way. It's a service to both sides of the veil.

Credit for the beautiful words ~ Sarah Kerr, Ritual Healing Practitioner and Death Doula , Death doula
Her original video link is here ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?

----MORE VIDEOS AND PLAYLISTS Becoming a Death Doula: https://bit.ly/DeathDoulaTraining Ritual Healing for End of Life: https://bit.ly/SarahKerrRituals Sa...

09/02/2025

In just a few weeks, what a transformation! Call today to set up a tour of our new burial options for urns and caskets!

08/28/2025

Our flower clean off is complete and it is safe to put out your fall flowers. If you are in the flower program, we will start placing your flowers September 3. Have a safe holiday weekend 🎃

08/25/2025

Construction is really coming along on our new Tranquility Garden which creatively combines casketed burials and cremation options. Call for your tour of the garden today.

08/15/2025

Just a reminder about our flower clean off the last week of August! It’s done for vases in the spring and the fall, and for graves only (not vases) after the holidays.

Address

3412 Frank Scott Pkwy West
Belleville, IL
62223

Telephone

+16182333110

Website

http://www.valhallagardensandfuneralhome.com/

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Our Story

Valhalla-Gaerdner-Holten Funeral Home in Belleville, Illinois, was founded in September 1930 by Jefferson Bush (J.B.) Azbill. For over 85 years, we have remained dedicated to helping families plan funeral and cremation services that celebrate their loved ones, growing into the full-service funeral home we are today.

Early Years

The cemetery, which was originally known as Valhalla Burial Park, was the 1st memorial lawn burial park in southwestern Illinois. Development was made up of themed garden sections with spacious lots and walkways surrounded by various trees, bushes and flowers. Memorials were custom, decorative, flat bronze on concrete foundations to maintain a park-like setting.

Azbill passed away suddenly in 1936, after a short illness. His widow, Freda Azbill, took over management and development of the Belleville funeral home and cemetery. Freda remained active as president for 54 years until her death in 1990. Freda was responsible for producing and staging the Avenue of Flags in 1951.

Growing To Serve Families In Belleville

In 1959, the 1st section of the Valhalla Sanctuary Chapel of Memories Mausoleum was constructed. It included crypts and niches, was constructed of concrete for strength and included a beautiful custom stained-glass window made in Manheim, Germany. Several additions have been added over the years, including more stained-glass windows and statuary art from around the world.

As Valhalla Gardens of Memory grew, new garden sections were enhanced with beautiful full-size marble and bronze statues sculpted in Italy from the same quarries that artist Michelangelo used. One statue in particular, from the Garden of Ascension, was displayed during the 1964 World’s Fair in New York on its way to Belleville.

Local Family Tradition

David Evans, Freda Azbill’s grandson, who had joined the staff in 1978, took over management of the funeral home and cemetery park after her passing. He continued the construction of new sections, including an underground lawn crypt section, in-ground and above-ground cremation niche options, a crematorium and developed the Valhalla Garden Mausoleum, so families would have multiple choices for their final resting place.

In 1996, Valhalla-Gaerdner-Holten Funeral Home opened, offering families a wide range of funeral and cremation service options as well as memorialization choices and the convenience, if desired, of having the cemetery nearby.

Working together, everyone at Valhalla-Gaerdner-Holten Funeral Home and Valhalla Gardens of Memory is poised to continue our many decades of service to the greater Belleville and St. Clair County area.