Generations of Craftsmanship. One Shared Future.
Our story is built on generations of families who have dedicated their lives to helping others create lasting memorials for the people they love.
The McNew family’s roots in the monument industry date back to 1956, when Homer McNew was serving as a minister at a small country church near Berea, Kentucky. After seeing families in his congregation struggle to afford memorials for their loved ones, Homer began searching for a way to help.
That search led him to Wilton Dye, the owner of a granite cutting business and quarry in Elberton, Georgia. The two became friends and arranged for families in Homer’s congregation to receive grave markers at a reduced cost. What began simply as a way to serve families in need soon grew as more people throughout the community began turning to the McNew family for monuments and memorial products.
Around 1960, the family established its first monument display near Renfro Valley. By the late 1960s, McNew Monuments had expanded into engraving its own memorials, with Homer and his son working together in the business.
The next generation joined in 1973, when Homer’s son, Ellis McNew, returned to the area and began working with the growing company. Around 1980, Ellis became an owner and eventually assumed responsibility for the business, expanding its relationships with funeral homes and cemeteries while investing in new equipment and technology.
In 2004, Clayton McNew, the current owner, took over leadership of the company, continuing the family’s commitment to quality craftsmanship and personal service. The following year, he expanded the business into Frankfort, Kentucky, establishing a sales office that allowed the company to better serve families, funeral homes, and cemeteries throughout the region and beyond.
A Five-Generation Tradition of Service
Alongside the McNew family’s monument history is the remarkable story of the Pruitt family, whose tradition of serving Kentucky families stretches back more than a century.
The Pruitt family's story began in 1889, when George Booker Pruitt founded the Pruitt Funeral Home in Moreland, Kentucky. George and his brother Meredith operated the business together, and in 1905 expanded with a branch in Burnside. George remained active in the Moreland funeral home until his death in 1945.
The tradition continued with George’s son, William “Willy” Lee Pruitt, who began working alongside his father in 1909. Following George’s death in 1945, William purchased the Moreland funeral home and carried the family business into its second generation.
The third generation began with Vaughan Dirck Pruitt, who joined his father in 1945 and became a licensed funeral director and embalmer in 1948. Over the decades that followed, Dirck became a central part of the family business and eventually managed the funeral home until his death in 2000. His dedication to the families he served established another chapter in a tradition built on personal relationships, compassion and community service.
Following Dirck’s passing, his daughter Karen Vaughan Pruitt Floro continued the family legacy as its fourth generation. Karen became a licensed funeral director in 2000 after completing her apprenticeship under her father. Her professional life had already been devoted to caring for others through her earlier career as a registered nurse, primarily in coronary care. She and her son would ultimately carry the Pruitt family's tradition into its next generation.
Today, Anthony Joseph “Tony” Floro represents the fifth generation of this family legacy.
Tony chose a career in funeral service even before completing his undergraduate education. While helping his grandfather, Vaughan Dirck Pruitt, during the late 1990s, he decided to accelerate his studies and completed his bachelor’s degree with honors from Morehead State University in just three and a half years. He then attended Mid-America College of Mortuary Science, earning an Associate in Applied Science in 2000 and becoming a licensed funeral director and embalmer.
Tony went on to serve as an operator and manager of the family funeral home while also becoming an owner of W.L. Pruitt Monument Company, extending the family's experience in funeral service into the monument and memorial industry. His background combines generations of compassionate service with firsthand knowledge of memorialization and the importance a permanent tribute holds for the families it represents.
His commitment to service has extended beyond the family businesses as well. Tony has served as a Lincoln County Deputy Coroner and has been an active member of the Kentucky Coroner’s Association and the Mass Fatality Response Team.
More than 135 years after George Booker Pruitt first entered funeral service, Tony continues a family tradition that has passed through five generations. Today, he and Karen Pruitt Floro are listed as principal owners/managers of W.L. Pruitt Funeral Home, demonstrating that the family legacy remains active today.
Two Legacies, One Commitment
Today, these two histories come together — the McNew family's decades of experience in monument craftsmanship and the Pruitt-Floro family's five generations of service to families during some of life's most difficult moments.
Together, they bring something that cannot be created overnight: generations of experience, knowledge and trust.
While equipment, technology and the monument industry itself have changed tremendously through the years, the principles behind our work have not. We believe every memorial represents more than granite. It represents a life, a family and a story that deserves to be remembered.
Our combined experience allows us to provide quality granite memorial products backed by generations of firsthand knowledge of both the monument and funeral industries. We are proud of the families who built these businesses before us, grateful for the communities that have trusted them for generations, and committed to carrying those traditions forward.