Hilton Head Funeral Homes

All three funeral homes handle funerals, burials and cremation, and all three will arrange military honors for a veteran. The differences are size and ownership. The Island Funeral Home is the oldest and largest, open since 1981 with chapels and a reception room of its own, and is part of Altogether, a national group. Keith Funeral is run by its two owners, both licensed funeral directors, who answer the phone themselves and will come to your home to make arrangements. Compassion Funeral Service, opened in 2020, is locally owned and serves families across Beaufort and Jasper counties.

Every funeral home must give you its itemized prices when you ask, by phone or in person, so it is fair to call two before deciding. On the mainland, Bluffton’s funeral homes are Sauls, with a chapel and its own cemetery, and Simplicity Cremation. For flowers, see the Hilton Head florists.

Two island funeral homes have their own crematory: The Island Funeral Home on Cardinal Road, which added the island’s first in 1983, and Keith Funeral on Arrow Road. Compassion Funeral Service also arranges cremations. Published prices for a direct cremation, with no service, are $2,740 at Keith Funeral and $2,845 at The Island Funeral Home; ask Compassion for its price list. Across the bridges, Simplicity Cremation in Bluffton lists $1,330.

A cremation can follow a full funeral with a viewing, come before a memorial service, or stand alone. Ashes can be kept at home, placed in a columbarium, buried, or scattered; if your family plans to fly home with them, ask the funeral home about the container and paperwork the airline needs.

If someone dies in the hospital or in hospice care, the staff will ask which funeral home the family wants. If the death is unexpected, at a rental or a hotel, call 911 first; the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office reviews an unattended death before a funeral home can bring your loved one into its care.

Any of the island’s funeral homes can then hold the service here, arrange a cremation, or prepare your loved one to travel home and work with a funeral home in your hometown for the service there. If your family already has a funeral home at home, call it too: it can coordinate the transfer with an island home.

For rental owners and property managers: keep these numbers with the emergency contacts in your staff handbook. A family that loses someone during a stay may turn to the rental office first.

Each home posts the obituaries of the families it serves: The Island Funeral Home on its memorial page on Legacy, and Keith Funeral and Compassion on their own sites (Compassion’s are on its obituary page). Many notices also run in the Island Packet and the Hilton Head Sun; our guide to Hilton Head obituaries covers where to look and how to place one.