18 People with One Purpose....To Serve You

The hallmark of an effective funeral home or mortuary is a deep sensitivity to the people that they serve.  The staff develops the facilities and services to fit the desires of the people. Warren-McElwain Mortuary has a staff of six full time and twelve part time, well-trained individuals to assist. We provide a full range of services including preneed counseling, arranging for different funeral services (such as burial, cremation, entombment or body donation), a complete line of granite and bronze markers including installation and an Aftercare Program that is administered by an individual with years of experience in pastoral counseling. Meeting the needs of a diverse community is not only a goal, but a destination for our staff. We want compassion and service to be more than just words.

MISSION STATEMENT
Warren-McElwain Mortuary is dedicated to providing high quality funeral services to all families we serve. It is our policy to be fair and serve all families in the manner we would wish to be served.

HISTORY
The successor to over 100 years of funeral service in Douglas County, The Warren-McElwain Mortuary is committed to providing the highest quality of care and personalized funeral service to Lawrence and the surrounding areas. Following the death of William C. Warren in 1973, the funeral business was purchased by the McElwain family and operated by Larry McElwain and his father, Keith M. McElwain.

Larry and Keith worked side by side to build their business, one family at a time, by concentrating on serving the needs of the community and by offering personalized funeral service to Lawrence and its surrounding areas. Following the untimely death of Keith McElwain in December of 1984, Phil Padden joined the firm and became a partner with Larry in the business. Phil is a third generation funeral director who moved to Lawrence from Winfield, Kansas. 

Today Larry and Phil continue as the two owners of the company. They work with a professional staff to provide services to all people. The professional staff consists of five funeral directors, both women and men, who are licensed funeral directors and embalmers. They bring together many years of experience. The professional staff is supported by 13 other people who assist in the various areas of the mortuary's operation. We know that in order to provide high quality services, it takes a team.