Funeral service options

The funeral home has 2 chapels. The newer Riverside Chapel is modern and sleek; it seats 270. Our older chapel is a more traditional space with soaring ceilings and pew seating for 100. This chapel has a separate family room as well. You may choose to have a funeral or memorial service in one of our chapels or you can choose a graveside service.

Let us know your preference.

Cremation services

We specialize in cremation services that honor loved ones in personalized ways, and families love our transparent pricing. With expertise in scattering ashes and a friendly team who pays attention to every detail, we provide service that is second to none.

More and more people are choosing cremation over traditional burial, but most aren’t familiar with the many options:

• a cremation without a funeral or memorial service of any kind.
• a funeral with your loved one present, followed by cremation.
• a cremation followed by a scattering, cemetery memorialization or celebration of life—or all three.

For those who wish for a more momentous memorial, Neptune Memorial Reef is an underwater cremation garden off the coast of Florida. A Celestis Memorial Spaceflight takes ashes into space for a little while or forever.

There are many options for cremation—and they're not all equal. Here's what you can expect when you choose us for your loved one's cremation:

• Custody of care guaranteed. Our custody-of-care program helps safeguard the identification of your loved one from the time we bring them into our care until the time we return them to your family. We check, cross-check and check again, every step of the way.
• Exclusive custody of your loved one. We use only crematories owned and operated by Dignity Memorial^® providers or trusted partners. Once your loved one is in our custody or that of a trusted partner, they’re in our care until they’re returned to your family.
• Licensed, certified, conscientious staff. All Dignity Memorial crematory operators are licensed and certified by Cremation Association of North America, or CANA. Only one person at a time is cremated, and the cremation chamber is thoroughly cleaned before the next person is cremated.

Read more about our cremation services.

We build relationships

The team at Lakewood Funeral Home and Lakewood Memorial Park is a tight-knit group that creates bonds in our community not only by helping people pre-plan funerals, but also by assisting families in navigating sensitive moments immediately following a death.

One example of the type of lasting relationship we build: Several years ago, a Lakewood Funeral Home associate helped an older couple make funeral arrangements for their son who died accidentally in a Japanese shipyard. To this day, that couple stops in just to chat when they go to or from their son's gravesite, and they send us a 10-pound box of chocolates every year.

We get great satisfaction from helping folks like that. It’s what we're all about.

Honoring veterans and public servants

Part of our community commitment at Lakewood Funeral Home and Lakewood Memorial Park involves honoring the military. At dawn on Memorial Day, a local Boy Scouts troop has already been hard at work placing flags at every veteran’s gravesite at the cemetery, and by mid-afternoon hundreds of large and small flags blanket the cemetery property, greeting the thousands of visitors who come here for a special day of remembrance.

Our Memorial Day service is considered by many veterans groups to be among the best in the area; several chapters of the American Legion Post, VFW chapters and their families gather at the cemetery to hear a military chorus and band perform patriotic songs and government officials speak about our valiant armed forces. It is a lovely afternoon in Hughson.

Another special event: Memorial for the Fallen. On the first Wednesday in May, Lakewood Funeral Home and Lakewood Memorial Park honor peace officers who have died in the line of duty. The sheriff department's equestrian unit attends, and a police helicopter flies over during the service. All surviving family members and friends of fallen peace officers get priority seating, and everyone has a barbecue feast afterward.

Other special events

Easter sunrise service at Lakewood Funeral Home and Lakewood Memorial Park is conducted on stage at our glorious amphitheater above the waterfall area of the cemetery. It's a favorite not only for the meaningful music and message given by local clergy, but also for the donuts and hot chocolate served afterward.

If you’ve ever participated in the colorful traditions of Día de los Muertos, you and your family will enjoy the celebrations held in the vicinity of our old chapel, where we set up altars and give attendees candles to light for their loved ones.

Lakewood Funeral Home and Lakewood Memorial Park are proud to be members of the Dignity Memorial® network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers. We provide not only the compassionate care you expect from a locally operated establishment, but also the value you deserve.

Please contact us if you need immediate assistance or if you would like more information about our services.

Lakewood Memorial Park

When someone you loved dies, you may feel a sense of hopeless detachment or lack of knowledge required to make burial decisions. We understand and sympathize with your dilemma, and we are here to help.

Hughson's Lakewood Memorial Park has many pretty areas to choose from, including beautiful cemetery gardens and outdoor and indoor mausoleums. The indoor mausoleum was a gorgeous addition to our cemetery property, with indoor seating and a fireplace that crackles with warmth in the winter.

Diverse cemetery gardens

For those of the Catholic faith, we have dedicated a large area with a manicured garden blessed by local priest Father Armando. We also offer walled estates and bench estates in this garden. In an area near a waterfall there are additional bench estates thoughtfully placed along a bluff dotted with evergreens. We have Greek Orthodox gardens and several Jewish gardens as well.

Memorials and monuments

Most of the cemetery has flat bronze markers, but you can also choose an upright granite marker, monoliths or double- or single-post memorials. Many people choose a personalized celebration of life in conjunction with a cremation. For those people, we offer ossuaries and communal cremation areas.

Choose an elegant and sophisticated granite memorial or a whimsical dolphin or butterfly marker—it’s your or your loved one's story to share with others forever. And we are here to celebrate unique lives in unique ways.

History

During the 1880s, the population along California's Tuolumne River exploded. That Gold Rush heyday eventually necessitated a cemetery. By the turn of the century, continued growth on either side of the river brought a need for a larger burial ground, resulting in the Empire Hughson Cemetery.

A half-century later, the community discovered again that they needed additional interment grounds, and so, with the aid of community planners, the Empire Hughson Cemetery Association worked to develop that which became known as Lakewood Memorial Park.

More than 100 years have passed, but 1 thing that stands as a reminder of Hughson's history is a marker placed by the Native Daughters of the Golden West in commemoration of our early pioneers. You can also experience a walk back in time of sorts when you visit the Old Pioneer area of the cemetery, where the upright stone markers of early Californian settlers stand silent guard over a landscape that continues to evolve with its people.

Lakewood Memorial Park is also the final resting place of the Florence Owens Thompson Migrant Mother, the famously stirring and poignant subject of a famous Depression Era and Dust Bowl portrait by Dorothea Lange.

In 1982, Lakewood Funeral Home was built on the cemetery property.