Stewart Enterprises, Inc. is the second largest provider of funeral and cemetery services in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The company is headquartered in Jefferson, Louisiana

Jefferson, Louisiana

Jefferson is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, on the East Bank of the Mississippi River. Jefferson is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 11,843 at the 2000 census...

 and employs nearly 5,400 people in 218 funeral homes and 140 cemeteries in 24 states and Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. The company is publicly traded and listed on NASDAQ

NASDAQ

The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...

 under the ticker symbol STEI. Frank B. Stewart, Jr. serves as chairman of the board. Thomas J. Crawford is president and chief executive officer. Thomas M. Kitchen is senior executive vice president and chief financial officer.

History

Stewart Enterprises was founded in New Orleans in 1910 by Albert Stewart, owner of the Acme Realty Company, when his real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

 business acquired the three St. Vincent de Paul Cemeteries and the St. Vincent de Paul Marble Shop, a company that built monuments for the cemeteries. Stewart kept both businesses, and they flourished. By 1931, his sons Frank Sr. and Charles incorporated the business as the Acme Marble & Granite Co. In 1949, the company established Lake Lawn Park Cemetery in New Orleans and developed a large perpetual-care community mausoleum with more than 31,000 crypts. In 1969, under the tutelage of President Frank B. Stewart, Jr. (Albert’s grandson), the company purchased the adjoining Metairie Cemetery

Metairie Cemetery

Metairie Cemetery is a cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The name has caused some people to mistakenly presume that the cemetery is located in Metairie, Louisiana, but it is located within the New Orleans city limits, on Metairie Road .-History:This site was previously a horse...

.

Expansion

In the 1980s, Stewart expanded from its base in Louisiana and Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 to Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, and West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

. The company went public in 1991, and, over the next several years, expanded to 30 states and 12 countries. In 1997, the firm announced a partnership with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 for the building and construction of funeral homes on nine of the Church’s cemeteries and management of preneed sales at 11 cemeteries. Stewart Enterprises celebrated its centennial on April 26, 2010.

Associations

Stewart’s associated businesses and affiliations include the Acme Mausoleum Corporation in Texas and Louisiana; Tributes.com, an online memorial site; and Investor Trust, Inc. (ITI), a wholly owned, Texas-based investment firm for preneed trust and the company’s portfolio. Stewart owns a number of historic cemeteries including Metairie Cemetery (Metairie, La.), Royal Palm Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home (West Palm Beach, Fla.), and Wisconsin Memorial Park (Brookfield, Wis.).

Approximately 41 percent of Stewart’s business is located in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Florida and Texas, states that have high proportions of senior citizens.