Ward Funeral Service Inc. is still the same operation that the family started on Feb. 28, 1948, in the old Jacobs home at the corner of Oakland and Second streets.

Carl D. "Bill" Ward and the late T.D. Brown and Robert F. Paysour renovated the house for use as a funeral home. They were the principal owners of the firm.

Ward had dreamed of opening his own business from childhood until he returned from naval service during World War II. He served in the hospital corps and graduated from the Navy Hospital Corps training school.

"Even when he was a barefooted kid growing up in east Gastonia, my father had an ambition to drive a big, shiny ambulance and render first-aid to accident victims," said his son, David Ward. "So it was natural back in 1936 when he was 19 years old to become a member of a local funeral home."

Twelve years later, Bill Ward formed a partnership with Paysour and established Ward-Paysour Funeral Home.

Ward's wife, Violet, helped run the business and raise David, and daughter, Martha. The family lived upstairs in the funeral home until 1958.

When the business first opened, it offered oxygen-equipped ambulances with running water and a new convenience: air conditioning.

Ward offered this service until 1973 when the county took over all ambulance service.

In 1964, the funeral home moved to its present location at 220 Broad St. to offer more room for visitations and funerals and more parking.

Today, the firm handles several visitations at a time and offers a chapel with a seating capacity of 300. It is recognized for its signature sky blue hearses with a black top, colors that the Wards chose about 20 years ago.

"We wanted to get away from black to offer something different," David Ward said. "Black denotes grief, sorrow and sadness, but a funeral is for the living, and it doesn't have to be a sad occasion in all respects."

Bill Ward, 82, retired from the business several years ago and left the everyday duties to his son, who serves as president, and wife, who serves as secretary treasurer.

"A few names and faces have changed over the years as can be expected in any business," said David Ward. "We've all aged a little, but we've also learned a lot."