Marlene Ruth Novak Kelley of Gainesville dies at 92, obituary says

Marlene Ruth Novak Kelley of Gainesville died Oct. 3 at age 92, according to an obituary published by Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home. The obituary says the firm's Gainesville home is directing her cremation arrangements.

The obituary says Kelley was born May 13, 1934, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It also says she retired from work as a legal secretary. Legacy, the national obituary site, carries the notice too, and its listing names the same Gainesville funeral home.

Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow gives the address of its Gainesville home as 1204 East California Street. The company says that home and a sister location in Whitesboro once operated as Meador Funeral Home. It says both kept their local staff when they took the Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow name. The company traces its Gainesville roots to 1922 and says the Whitesboro home has served Grayson County since 2004.

Both homes handle burial and cremation, according to the company's website. The site says a family that chooses cremation can hold a memorial ceremony or go without one.

The funeral industry's national forecasts put cremation well ahead of burial. The National Funeral Directors Association's 2025 Cremation & Burial Report projected that cremation would make up nearly two of every three U.S. dispositions that year. Disposition is the trade's word for the final handling of remains. The report projected a burial share about half that size. The association expects cremation's share to keep rising through 2045. It also projected that by 2035, cremation would account for more than half of all dispositions in every state and in Washington, D.C. These are national projections, not measured rates for Cooke County.

The two choices also differ in price. NFDA's national figures for 2023 put the median cost of a funeral with cremation about $2,000 below the median for a funeral with viewing and burial. Those medians do not show what Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow charges or what Kelley's arrangements cost.

Geo. J. Carroll & Son, another Gainesville funeral home, also offers cremation, according to its service list. The list says a family can pair cremation with anything from a full funeral to a private observance. The firm also lists permanent resting places for cremated remains.

Carroll's published history says its founder opened a funeral business in Gainesville in 1899. By the company's account, the firm moved into its present building at 602 Lindsay Street in 1936. William Brown and his son Robin bought the business in 1975, the history says.