Downtown businesses change ownership
Trisha Benton
Randolph Times
RANDOLPH - Two businesses downtown are changing ownership but plan to keep operating with business as usual.
Johnson’s Funeral Chapel is under new ownership as of Oct. 1 as Owner Brad Johnson retired and sold to Home for Funerals. Up the street, the Drunken Moose is under new ownership with Molly Hartman selling the business to Amber Hanson of Randolph Monday.
“After years of being on call we just decided it was time for us to move on,” Johnson said, selling their funeral homes in both Randolph and Stanton.
The Randolph funeral chapel has been in the Johnson family since 1965 when Brad’s father, Roger, purchased the then O’Neill Funeral Home & Clothing Store. Through the years, the Johnsons also owned funeral homes in Wayne, Wisner, Pilger and Norfolk, along with the Randolph and Stanton locations.
In 2000, Roger Johnson retired and sold the funeral home business to his son and his wife, Brad and Teri Johnson.
Roger and Marilyn Johnson now reside in Lincoln while Brad and Teri moved recently to Omaha.
“It’s dig out of a hole, pick up your whole life and move. It took us the better part of August to pack it all up and even longer to unpack it the way it looks right now,” Brad Johnson said.
And even though they are no longer physically in the community, a part of them remains.
“I’ve always been from Randolph and I’ll always be from Randolph,” Brad said. “My wife and I consider Randolph home.”
Residents can expect some updates on the interior and exterior of the funeral chapel facility as well as the name change officially to Home for Funerals-Randolph, said Eric Gamerl, funeral director and vice-president for Home for Funerals.
He said there’s big shoes to fill stepping into the Randolph chapel.
“Brad and his father were institutes there,” he said.
Gamerl said an open house will be planned for next month but the lines of communication are open now.
“I don’t want people to be afraid to contact us,” he said. “We’re there for the long haul, to serve the community. I’m in the profession to take care of people and we’ve been given the opportunity to help the community and we plan on doing that.”
Like Johnson, Hartman is looking forward to freeing up some time as she sold The Drunken Moose, after owning and operating it for the last seven years.
“I’ve been ready to go Monday through Friday with no nights and no weekends,” she said. “My husband works a day job and I’d like to go back to having a normal life.”
It was a perfect opportunity for Hanson as she’s always wanted to own her own business. Vern Horney is the new owner of the building and Hanson the new owner of the business.
“We love it here and we wanted to purchase it and do some updating and keep it going,” Hanson said.
The bar will be closed this week for some cosmetic changes with new paint. Larger changes are in store this spring with plans to revamp the outside beer garden and resurface the bar. The side of the facility that has an apartment will also be taken down and re-constructed, she said.
Hanson hopes to have the Moose open on Sundays with a Bloody Mary special and live music when weather permits.
For right now, the name remains the same, she said.
Hartman said she’s excited to experience the bar on the other side of the counter.
“We have appreciated everyone in Randolph and all the support all these years,” she said. “We wouldn’t want to live anywhere else as we have a great group of people to spend our days with. We have the business but they’re the ones that make it go.”
