This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Skradski Funeral Home at 340 North Sixth Street is the Croatian immigrant funeral home of Strawberry Hill, opened in March 1929 by Matt Skradski Sr. and his family, who had arrived in Kansas City, Kansas from Yugoslavia in 1892 and worked in the packing houses before running a dry goods store on North James Street. Four Skradskis ran it across three generations. It is not independently owned today: the firm was sold outside the family in December 2014, and in November 2022 Park Lawn Corporation — a publicly traded funeral consolidator headquartered in Toronto and Houston — acquired it along with Muehlebach Funeral Care and Assurance Cremation Society. It appears on Park Lawn’s own list of owned businesses. The family name and the Strawberry Hill history remain on the building; ownership does not.

Description

Skradski Funeral Home is a funeral home at 340 North Sixth Street in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. It was founded in March 1929 by the Skradski family, Croatian immigrants who had settled on Strawberry Hill in the 1890s, and it carried the family through three generations of ownership.1

It is not a family business today. The firm was sold to Steve Pierce, then owner of Muehlebach Funeral Care in Kansas City, Missouri, in December 2014.12 In November 2022, Park Lawn Corporation — a publicly traded company operating cemeteries, crematoria and funeral homes across two Canadian provinces and eighteen to twenty U.S. states — acquired substantially all of the assets of Muehlebach Funeral Care, Skradski-Pierce Funeral Home in Kansas City, Kansas, and Assurance Cremation Society.3 Skradski Funeral Home appears by name and address on Park Lawn’s own directory of businesses it owns.

This gap between signage and ownership is worth stating plainly because it is easy to miss: the firm’s own about-us page still narrates an unbroken family history and does not disclose the corporate parent, and Steve Pierce continues to be listed as president and funeral director on the staff page alongside Helen Skradski.14 Park Lawn holds fourteen locations in the Kansas City metro, several of them trading under original family names.

The Strawberry Hill history the firm carries is real and predates the corporate acquisition by ninety-three years. Matt Skradski Sr. arrived from Yugoslavia in 1892 and worked in the meat packing plants, as most men of his nationality on the Hill did. He returned to the old country and came back with his wife Anna and son Nicholas; the family worked in a grocery and then opened their own dry goods store at 60 N. James Street in 1905, adding a second at 344–46 N. Fifth Street in 1913 that also housed a post office sub-station until 1929. Community leaders encouraged the family to open a funeral home, and Skradski and Son opened in March 1929.1

Goods and services

  • Traditional funeral services — visitation, chapel service, burial1
  • Cremation services1
  • Veteran services1
  • Pre-planning and pre-need arrangements, including an online pre-planning form1
  • Personalization and digital memorialization1
  • Grief support, including referral to the HeartLight Center grief services1
  • Published services and pricing1

History

Matt Skradski Sr. emigrated from Yugoslavia in 1892 to Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, Kansas, and took work in the packing houses. He later returned and brought back his wife Anna and son Nicholas. The family worked in a grocery before opening a dry goods store of their own at 60 N. James Street in 1905, followed by a second store at 344–46 N. Fifth Street in 1913 which also served as a post office sub-station until 1929.1

Encouraged by community leaders, the family entered funeral service. Nicholas, the eldest son, attended the Williams Institute of Embalming in Kansas City, Kansas and became a licensed funeral director and embalmer, and Skradski and Son Funeral Home opened in March 1929. Nicholas fell ill; his brother Matt Jr. completed mortuary training in 1936 and carried the business.1

Matt Sr. died in 1950. Matt Jr. and his wife Anne ran the firm until his retirement, when it passed to their son Matt J. Skradski and his wife Helen. Matt J. Skradski died in 1997 and Helen Skradski — licensed as a funeral director and embalmer since 1985 — continued to operate the business.14

In December 2014 Helen Skradski sold the funeral home to Steve Pierce, who with his wife Nicole had taken over Muehlebach Funeral Care in Kansas City, Missouri in July 2003.12 Pierce was appointed to the board of directors of Selected Independent Funeral Homes, the trade association of independently owned firms, as president of both Muehlebach and Skradski.2

On November 15, 2022, Park Lawn Corporation announced it had completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Muehlebach Funeral Care, Skradski-Pierce Funeral Home and Assurance Cremation Society. Pierce’s statement in the release framed it as a partnership: “We have been serving the greater Kansas City communities for many decades and are excited that our partnership with Park Lawn will allow us to continue to provide personalized service to our families.”3 The firm has appeared on Park Lawn’s owned-business directory since.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Skradski Funeral Home — official site, “About Us” — asserts: Matt Skradski Sr.’s 1892 emigration from Yugoslavia to Strawberry Hill and work in the meat packing plants; his return with wife Anna and son Nicholas; the family’s grocery work and the dry goods store at 60 N. James Street in 1905; the second store at 344–46 N. Fifth Street in 1913 with a post office sub-station until 1929; community encouragement to open a funeral home; the March 1929 opening of Skradski and Son Funeral Home; Nicholas’s training at the Williams Institute of Embalming and subsequent illness; Matt Jr.’s completion of mortuary training in 1936; Matt Sr.’s death in 1950; the succession through Matt Jr. and Anne, then Matt J. and Helen Skradski, Matt J.’s death in 1997, and Helen’s continued operation; Steve Pierce’s purchase of the funeral home in December 2014; the address 340 N. Sixth Street, Kansas City, Kansas; phone (913) 371-1404; and the service list (traditional, cremation, veteran, personalization, pre-planning, digital memorialization, grief support, published services and pricing). This page names no corporate parent — the omission is itself a documented fact here. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15

  2. South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce — “Muehlebach’s Steve Pierce Appointed to Board of Directors for Selected Independent Funeral Homes” — asserts: Steve Pierce as president of Muehlebach Funeral Care in Kansas City, Missouri and Skradski Funeral Home in Kansas City, Kansas; his appointment to the board of directors of Selected Independent Funeral Homes, described as the world’s oldest association of independently owned funeral homes; and that Steve and Nicole Pierce took over ownership of Muehlebach in July 2003. Note: this appointment predates the Park Lawn acquisition; it is evidence of the ownership history, not of present independence. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Park Lawn Corporation — “Park Lawn Completes Acquisition of Muehlebach,” press release dated November 15, 2022 — asserts: Park Lawn’s completed acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Muehlebach Funeral Care (Kansas City, Missouri), Skradski-Pierce Funeral Home (Kansas City, Kansas) and Assurance Cremation Society (Kansas City, Missouri); three stand-alone funeral homes in the transaction; and the quoted statement from Steve Pierce. Park Lawn Corporation is identified in its releases as publicly traded (TSX: PLC, PLC.U) with Canadian offices at 2 St. Clair Ave. E, Suite 705, Toronto, and U.S. offices at Two Houston Center, 909 Fannin St, Suite 2300, Houston. ↩ ↩2

  4. Skradski Funeral Home — official site, “Our Staff” — asserts: Steve Pierce listed as president and funeral director; Nicole Pierce as after-care specialist; Helen Skradski listed as former owner with Matt J. Skradski and a licensed funeral director and embalmer since 1985; John Anaya as funeral director, raised in Kansas City, Kansas, in the St. Cyril and Methodius parish, a J. C. Harmon High School graduate and a 1994 graduate of the Kansas City Kansas School of Mortuary Science; Jenny Mertes as community service director; Mary Brenner as advanced planning director. ↩ ↩2

On the record — ks.city/registry/skradski-funeral-home · record updated 2026-08-14