Our History

Guenette Funeral Home exterior, circa 1990
Guenette Funeral Home exterior, circa 1995

Our History


The Guenette Funeral Home was founded by Charles Guenette in the early 1930's. He received his Ontario license at the Canadian School of Embalming in Toronto in 1934. Five of Charles's children worked with him, François, Jean-Jacques, Jacqueline, Maurice and Paul, operating funeral homes in Kapuskasing, Hearst, and Timmins as well as a hardware store, a lumber yard and some other small businesses that Charles had established in the area. In the 1950's, Jacqueline and her husband, Jean-Noël, purchased the funeral home in Hearst and began Lafrance Funeral Home. His sons formed a corporation to operate the businesses as Guenette Brothers when their father retired. In 1974 the brothers went their separate ways, with one operating the hardware store, the other the lumber yard, François operating the funeral home in Kapuskasing and Paul operating the funeral home in Timmins.

In 1986, Jules Joly was approached by François to purchase shares of the Kapuskasing funeral home, which he did, and four years later he acquired the balance of the shares to become sole owner. Over the next few years, Jules did extensive renovations to the interior of the building, and built an addition to make the building accessible to all.


Over the years, Guenette Funeral Home has continued to evolve by bringing in new technology, implementing new policies and staying current with families' needs. This is evident in the awards we have received; the Kapuskasing & District Chamber of Commerce awarded the Guenette Funeral Home in 1997 with Business Person of the Year, Jules Joly; in 2003 with Best Business Website; and in 2004 with Best Customer Service, Allain Dandenault. In 2005, the funeral home was the recipient of the Prix Phénix Ontario Nord from the Chambre Économique de l'Ontario for entrepreneurial excellence in French.



In 2015, Allain Dandenault purchased the funeral home from Jules and endeavours to continue serving the families of Kapuskasing and area in the same spirit and compassion that has always been exemplified. 


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