Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Gross Funeral Home, Funeral service & cemetery, 120 Wrights Street, Hot Springs, AR.
11/05/2025
🇺🇸 Honoring Our Veterans 🇺🇸
This Veterans Day, we pause to honor the brave men and women who have proudly served our nation. Your sacrifice, courage, and commitment to protecting our freedoms will never be forgotten.
As a small token of gratitude, Gross Funeral Home will be giving free American flags to veterans.
📍 120 Wrights Street, Hot Springs
📅 November 11
⏰ Available all day while supplies last
To every veteran — thank you. We are honored to serve those who have served us. 🇺🇸
We don’t want to miss the opportunity to celebrate Chad!
We are so thankful that Chad is part of our Gross Funeral Home Family.
Chad is one of a kind! He serves his families with dignity, respect and absolute excellence!
He works hard, and is so much fun to work with.
🎂Happy Birthday Chad!!🎂
06/30/2025
We are incredibly honored to have been voted Best Funeral Home of 2025. Serving the Hot Springs community with compassion and care is a privilege we never take for granted.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your trust and continued support. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to walk alongside families during some of life’s most tender moments.
We’re proud to be part of such a caring community — and we remain committed to serving Hot Springs with dignity, respect, and compassion.
05/27/2025
We are proud to have five members of our Gross Funeral Home team representing Leadership Hot Springs across five different classes!
Being actively involved in our community allows us to truly connect with the people we’re honored to serve. It also helps us identify ways we can continue to grow and improve for the benefit of those around us.
We’re grateful for the opportunity to grow with Hot Springs—and we love being a part of what makes this community so special!
🤩
L-R Chad Newell, Candice Messec, Robyn Hoover, Justin Nicklas, and Karen Vance.
05/26/2025
On Memorial Day, Gross Funeral Home remembers our fallen heroes who have given their lives to serve our country. 🇺🇸
05/20/2025
Congratulations to the Leadership Hot Springs Class XXVII 🍾🍾
And especially to Robyn Hoover!! 🤩
Thankful for your commitment to Leadership not only within our Gross Funeral Home Family, but also to our community!
05/15/2025
Our team enjoyed lunch with the Razorback Roadshow at Oaklawn Hot Springs. Thank you to Oaklawn Racing and Casino for hosting and First Security Bank for sponsoring!
04/02/2025
🌷It’s time for our Annual Egg Hunt🌷
Mark your calendars! We can’t wait to see you!
01/31/2025
We are so proud of our General Manager, Justin Nicklas, for his dedication to the community of Hot Springs. Justin truly has a passion to serve people.
Justin was honored at the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet as the first to ever recieve the Chairman of the Year Award.
Congratulations and Thank You for the way you serve this community as well as your Gross Funeral Home team!
01/10/2025
Wishing you all a safe, happy, and warm snow day! ❄️ ⛄️
12/30/2024
Today, Americans across the country mourn the loss of President Jimmy Carter. Our heartfelt prayers are with the entire Carter family during this difficult time.
We invite you stop by Gross Funeral Home anytime before January 7th to sign a guestbook for President Carter’s family. On January 8 we will have it delivered to the president’s family.
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James B. McCaffrey opened an undertakers' business in downtown Hot Springs on April 18, 1874. That business eventually became Gross Funeral Home and still serves the community today.
James originally located his firm on the ground floor of the Dodge and Osborne Building on Fourth Street in Little Rock, but there were already several other undertaking companies in that city, so James moved his to Hot Springs, where there were no others. In 1882, James took on A.S. "Gus" Buchanan as a partner and changed the name of firm to McCaffrey and Buchanan, Undertakers. Buchanan left James to open his own funeral home, and James hired Bernard "Billy" Gross, forming McCaffrey and Gross, Undertakers.
Billy Gross Takes Over
James died at age 55. Billy took over, renaming the firm B. Gross, Embalmer & Undertaker. Billy became a well-respected business and civic leader: He was elected second president of the Arkansas Funeral Directors Association, which was founded in 1900. Billy represented Arkansas at many National Funeral Directors Association meetings, and he always returned home with new ideas.
One of those new ideas was ambulance service. Many undertakers in the United States started ambulance services as sideline businesses around the turn of the century. Billy changed the name of his firm to B. Gross, Undertaker, Embalmer and Prompt Ambulance Service. His first ambulance was drawn by a white horse.
The Brenners Join Up
Billy hired 30-year-old George H. Brenner Sr. as a part-time embalmer. A man who never
met a stranger, George soon became a full-time employee and in 1910 purchased one-third interest in the firm. When Billy developed health problems, George and his wife, Kathleen, took on management responsibilities.
Billy died in 1919 at the age of 64. The newspaper reported that his funeral was one of the largest in the history of Hot Springs. The Brenners purchased full ownership of the firm and changed name to Gross Undertaking Company and then Gross Mortuary. In 1921, Kathleen became the first woman to become a licensed embalmer in Arkansas. Gross Mortuary was incorporated in 1959. By then George and Kathleen's sons were running the funeral home; George H. Brenner Jr. was president.
The Leggett Family Acquires The Funeral Home
In 1971, the Brenners sold their business to the Leggett family of Little Rock, and that's when the name became Gross Funeral Home. Notably, Gross Funeral Home handled the 1994 funeral of Virginia Clinton Kelly, mother of President Bill Clinton. In 2013, Gross Funeral Home became a member of the Dignity Memorial® network of funeral, burial, cremation and cemetery service providers.
