Thursday, Sep. 24, 2009
Marvin Latimer
A Sense of Balance
Marvin Latimer at Latimer's Funeral Home in Conway. - photo by Scott Smallin, Weekly Surge staff.
Because Marvin Latimer is a Grand Strand native, he says he remembers a time when a person could drive fast down Ocean Boulevard near the Pavilion without seeing a light or a police officer. He calls himself a “lifer.” “I’ve been here my whole life, and when I tell people that I am from here, they ask me where I moved from,” he laughs. Many may recognize him as the cigar-chewing contestant on CBS’s “Big Brother 5,” remember his appearance on “The Young and the Restless,” or have seen one of his local television appearances, but TV pursuits aside, Latimer’s bread-and-butter lies in an altogether different realm – the funeral business.
Latimers Funeral Home in Conway has been in business for more than 85 years, and Latimer is a licensed funeral director there. “My father started this business,” he says. “When you’re a person like me and your name is on the sign, that encompasses many facets and you have to wear a lot of hats.” Latimer is a graduate of Clemson University with a bachelor’s degree in business with a concentration in finance. “I wanted to come back from Clemson and try to revolutionize the business and step into marketing a little more.”
But just what hats come into play as a funeral director?
“I look at everything from start to finish,” he says. “You might do an arrangement conference one day, where you meet with the family. At night you might do a wake where you receive friends. You might do a funeral or sell a funeral – the full gamut.”
Latimer says funerals are very specialized, with individuals concentrating on facets like embalming, hair and makeup, digging graves, etc. “Basically a funeral director is a contractor for all of these subs. You need to know all aspects of the business so you can make sure everybody is working at high level of professionalism.”
By default, then, Latimer has a hand in every aspect of the business, with certain distinctions. “Legally, I’m not an embalmer, but growing up in the business we have been privy to some of the best embalmers in the state. So I know when a job is done right. You want to make sure that all of your subs are taking utmost care to be as perfect as possible, that the flowers are arranged properly and the cars are clean.” He compares his role to that of a wedding director. “That’s the age we’re in now, with high levels of task management with every detail covered. Funerals are more like events than they used to be.”
Marketing for a funeral home is very different because of laws governing what one can and cannot do. “It’s not like you can go into a hospital and hand out business cards,” he says. “There’s a certain gray area.” Because Latimers Funeral Home has had such a long history in the community, word-of-mouth plays a big part. “When I first got out of Clemson, I had learned all of those Carnegie principles and economic indicators. That works well on paper, but in a real-world setting you have to approach things a bit differently. You can’t raise your prices just because you want to.”
Latimer works the family business with his brother, George Latimer, and his mother, Edna Latimer. “My Mom’s the CEO. In a family business you’re dealing with interpersonal relationships more than office politics.”
Because of Latimer’s visibility from “Big Brother 5,” we had to ask if this impacted his day job.
“The first year after I got off the show, it was a living nightmare. In this job you have to convey a certain degree of decorum, and people didn’t exactly attend to that. They would ask me to sign autographs during funerals or afterward want me to take pictures with them.” While Latimer says he’s not the kind of person to turn anybody down, especially since a lot of these people voted for him on the show – he was mindful about not crossing the line. “I put my family first and don’t want to do anything to denigrate the business.”
Golf helps Latimer to decompress. “When I hit the parking lot at a golf course, I’m not thinking about work. I’m more upset and mad about my golf game.”
But Latimer, who has appeared on many network and local shows and commercials, spends much of his time submitting for more showbiz work. “I’m a workaholic, being a Scorpio, which can be a bad trait. I have an agent, but you are always going to be your best agent unless your name is Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt.” How he is able to juggle all of this is somewhat boggling. “I’m kind of like a duck – I look smooth going across the water, but if you look underneath, my feet are going 100 miles an hour.
Latimers Funeral Home will remain a top priority, but if an opportunity arises, Latimer seems the type to embrace it. He cites three screen tests he did for Lifetime’s “Army Wives,” which is filmed in Charleston, which could have been a “best of both worlds” scenario, but the job did not pan out. “I don’t get it twisted,” he says. “When I start working in television 55 hours a week instead of swinging the hammer here at the funeral home, that will be a good day. But until then, it’s Marvin Latimer, LFD.”
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