Our founder, Harold B. Hadley, and his wife, Virginia Sendelbeck, purchased the property at 500 Fifth Street at Wooster Street in 1937.  Mr. Hadley was born at Fifteen, OH, in Northeastern Washington County, in 1905 and graduated from Marietta High School in 1925, Marietta College in 1932, and Cincinnati College of Embalming in 1935.  In 1933, he met Virginia, a nurse at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati, OH, and they were wed in December 1935.  Together they opened the Harold Hadley Funeral Home on Mothers Day, May 5, 1938, and he continued to oversee its operations until his death on June 30, 1987.

Virginia Hadley lives next door to the funeral home and still continues having an interest in the day to day operation of the funeral home.   She was born in Norwood, OH and graduated from Jewish Hospital School of Nursing in 1935 and moved to Marietta, OH in 1937 with her husband to start the funeral home.   They had three children, Harold Lee Hadley, James A Hadley, and John J. Hadley.   Two of their sons, H. Lee and John J., are funeral directors and embalmers in the funeral home today.  There are six grandchildren and one, J.R. "Rob" Hadley, is a funeral director and embalmer at the funeral home.