Ruth Ellen Vance
1938 – 2026
Retired teacherTaught fourth grade at Wheatland for thirty-one years. Visitation Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., at our chapel. Funeral Saturday at 11 a.m., First Methodist.
One family, four generations
Ellsworth & Company
Funeral Directors since 1911 · Lancaster
If a death has just occurredObituaries
Those we are caring for
Every obituary we write lives here on our own website, where it can be shared with family anywhere and will stay for as long as we are in business.
Delmar J. Kowalczyk
1951 – 2026
U.S. Army, 1969 – 1973Kept bees on the Marietta Pike and gave the honey away. Graveside service Thursday at 2 p.m., Saint Anne Cemetery, with military honors.
Margaret A. Sutter
1944 – 2026
Memorial gifts requestedRan the desk at the county library until she was seventy-four. Memorial service Sunday at 3 p.m. at our chapel. Gifts in her memory to the library.
Also in our care
Know when a notice is posted
We will email you once, on the morning we publish a new obituary, with the name and the service times. Nothing else is ever sent to this list, and one click takes you off it.
If a death has just occurred
(555) 000-0000Call at any hour, including nights, weekends and holidays. A member of our family answers, not a service.
If the death was unexpected and hospice is not involved, call 911 first. If your loved one was under hospice care, call the hospice nurse first, then call us.
Or ask us to telephone you
If you would rather not make the call yourself, leave a number. Somebody is awake.
First
We come to you
Tell us where your loved one is. We will bring them into our care from a home, hospital or nursing facility, usually within two hours.
Then
Nothing is decided today
No arrangements need to be made tonight and no money changes hands. We will sit down with you the following day, at our rooms or at your house.
When you come in
What to bring
A photo ID and Social Security number, and discharge papers if your loved one served. If you cannot find any of it, come anyway. We will help you track it down.
What we provide
Everything below is priced on this website, in full, before you call.
Cremation
From $1,690
Burial
From $4,180
Memorials
Any faith, or none
Veterans
Honors and paperwork
Planning ahead
No cost, no obligation
Held by the same family for four generations
Every director who has ever signed a certificate in this building has been an Ellsworth.
Since 1911
The rooms have not changed much
Harold Ellsworth opened these rooms on Duke Street in 1911, in a building that had been a joiner's shop. His son took over in 1948, his grandson in 1979, and his great granddaughter signed her first certificate here in 2009.
We are not part of a group and we have never sold. When you call this number, the person who answers has a surname on the sign outside, and will still be here next year.
Come and see the roomsWho will answer
There are six of us. Whichever one picks up the telephone at two in the morning is the same one who will be standing beside you at the graveside.
Margaret Ellsworth
Owner · Supervisor
Fourth generation, and Harold's great granddaughter. She grew up in the apartment over the garage, signed her first death certificate in this building in 2009, and bought the firm from her father in 2019. She sits on the county hospice board and answers most of the night calls herself.
Thomas Ellsworth
Funeral director · Third generation
Took the firm over from his father in 1979 and has not missed a Memorial Day service at Saint Anne since. He is meant to be retired. He still takes Tuesday nights on call, and he still plays taps himself when a veteran's family asks for it.
Dana Whitcomb
Funeral director · Crematory operator
Not an Ellsworth, and the only one of us who runs the crematory. She joined in 2014 from a firm in York and she is the person who will sit down and explain, plainly and without hurrying, what actually happens during a cremation. Families ask. She answers.
Ed Kohl
Advance planning
Twenty-two years here, and the one who drives out to your kitchen table rather than asking you to come in. He handles the funeral trusts and the Medicaid spend‑down paperwork, and he will tell you when prepaying is the wrong move for your family.
Carol Bricker
Office manager
Thirty-one years at the front desk, which makes her the voice most of Lancaster County associates with this firm. She orders the death certificates, chases the insurance companies, and knows which clerk at the courthouse will actually pick up.
Ruthie
Comfort dog
A golden retriever who has been on staff since 2021 and is very good at her job. She works the visitations and she is particularly useful with children, who often have nobody to talk to and would rather sit on the floor anyway.
We publish our prices because a family should never have to make a phone call they are not ready for just to find out what something costs.Margaret Ellsworth, fourth generation, licensed director
Our prices
What a funeral costs here
Only about one funeral home in five publishes a complete price list. Homes that keep prices hidden charge more on average. We would rather you knew before you walked in.
Direct cremation
Transfer into our care, cremation, and the return of your loved one in a simple urn. No service.
$1,690
Cremation with a service
Everything above, with a visitation and a memorial service in our chapel or at your church, and printed folders for those who attend.
$3,280
Graveside burial
Preparation, a casket from our selection room, transfer to the cemetery, and a service at the graveside.
$4,180
Traditional funeral and burial
Preparation, a casket, an evening visitation, a full service in our chapel or at your church, procession, and the committal at the cemetery.
$6,740
You have the right to choose only the goods and services you want. Our itemized General Price List shows every item separately and is available above, at our rooms, or by telephone. Cemetery charges, certified death certificates, newspaper notices and clergy honoraria are paid to others and billed to you at exactly what they cost us. Prices on this page were last updated in July 2026.
Cremation in Lancaster County
A cremation here still has a funeral in it
$1,690
Direct cremation, complete
Cremation is now the choice of roughly two families in three, and almost all of them still gather. There is a service, there are flowers, and people come back afterward and eat something. The only part that changes is what happens at the end.
We will arrange the timing so the urn can be present at the service if you want that. Families are welcome to be present at the crematory.
See what is included
Plan ahead
Write it down once
Three questions now, and your family will not have to guess later. Nothing here is binding and nothing is paid. We will hold your wishes on file and send you a copy.
Spending down for Medicaid
Money set aside for a funeral is counted differently
More than one family in four who prepay do it for this reason. If a parent is heading toward a nursing home and needs to qualify for Medicaid, funds moved into an irrevocable funeral trust are generally not treated the way a savings account is treated.
The rules are set by the state and they change. We will explain plainly how it works here, what it covers and what it does not. There is no charge for that conversation, and we will tell you honestly if it is not the right move for your family.
Start the conversationAfter the service
The part nobody warns you about
The paperwork outlasts the funeral by months. Here is what usually comes next, and where we still help.
Death certificates: how many you need
Every bank, life insurance company, pension plan, title office and utility that held something in your loved one's name will want a certified copy, and most will not give it back. We order them for you when we file the certificate. Families usually start with six to eight, and we can order more later.
Social Security
We report the death to Social Security for you as part of our service. That reporting does not apply for survivor benefits. A surviving spouse or child may be eligible for a one-time payment and, in some cases, ongoing monthly benefits, but you have to contact Social Security yourself to claim them. Do it sooner rather than later, since some benefits are not paid retroactively.
If your loved one was a veteran
Bring the discharge papers (form DD-214) if you can find them, and we will request a copy if you cannot. Eligible veterans may receive a burial flag, a government headstone or marker at no cost, and in some circumstances a burial allowance. Burial in a national or state veterans cemetery is also available to those who qualify. We file this paperwork for every veteran we serve.
Grief support in the county
A group meets the second Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in our gathering room, and there is a booklet for the first sixty days, guidance for children, and a current list of counsellors across the county. All of it is free and none of it requires that we handled the funeral. See what is available.
Grief support
You do not have to have used us
Everything below is free and open to anyone in the county, whether we handled the funeral or not. Grief does not check where the arrangements were made.
The Tuesday group
Meets the second Tuesday of every month, 6:30 p.m., in our gathering room at 118 Duke Street. No cost, no sign up, no obligation to say anything. Some people come for a year. Some come once. Coffee is on from six.
Where to parkThe first sixty days
A short, practical booklet we wrote ourselves, because the first two months are mostly paperwork and nobody warns you. What arrives in the mail, what has to be answered, what can safely wait until spring. We will post you a copy or you can read it here.
Read it or have it postedWhen it is a child grieving
Children grieve in short bursts and often years later, which frightens parents who expect it to look like their own. Guidance on what to say, what to avoid, and whether to bring a child to a viewing, plus the two counsellors in Lancaster who specialise in it.
Read the guidanceCounsellors and groups nearby
A current list of grief counsellors, hospice bereavement programmes and faith based groups across Lancaster County, including the ones for a lost spouse, a lost child, and for death by suicide or overdose. We keep it current and we take no referral fee.
See the listThe anniversary is harder than the funeral
If you would like it, we will telephone you once, at about eleven months, before the first anniversary comes around. Most families say that is the week nobody remembers except them. Tell Carol at any time and she will put a note in the file, or take you off it.
Families we have served
In their words
★★★★★
They answered at four in the morning and Margaret was at the house before the sun came up. I will never forget that.Rebecca L., Lancaster
★★★★★
We knew what everything cost before we sat down. After what my sister went through in another county, that was a relief.Daniel M., Columbia
★★★★★
They rang me at eleven months, before the first anniversary. Nobody else remembered that week.Anne S., Lancaster
At your service
Pay a bill
Settle an account online
You can pay by card here at any time, in full or in part. If a life insurance policy has been assigned to us there is nothing for you to pay now and nothing for you to do. Most policies take thirty to ninety days to be released, and we wait, without charging interest.
Pay by cardPayments are handled by our card processor. We never see or store your card number, and a receipt is emailed to you the moment the payment clears.