Richard Bryant Hightower, Sr., 89, of Bremen, Georgia, passed away on Sunday, September 27, 2026, leaving behind a life deeply woven into the history of his family, his profession, and the West Georgia community he called home.
Richard was born on May 6, 1937, at Crawford W. Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of the late Herschel Bryant “H.B.” Hightower and Ruby Thompson Hightower. Though born in Atlanta, Richard was raised in Bremen, Georgia, the community that would remain home throughout his life. His mother, Ruby, was a native of Mt. Zion, and Richard’s roots in West Georgia ran deep long before his own lifetime of service to the area began.
Funeral service became part of Richard’s story early in life. In 1945, his parents purchased Hoyt Kenny Funeral Home in Bremen and established Hightower Funeral Home. Richard grew up around the funeral home and, by sixteen, was washing cars, driving ambulances, and helping his mother and father wherever he was needed. In 1955, the same year Richard graduated from high school, H.B. and Ruby expanded their service to Carrollton with the purchase of Martin Funeral Home, establishing Martin & Hightower Funeral Home. What began for Richard as a young man working alongside his parents would become a lifetime devoted to funeral service and to caring for families throughout West Georgia.
Richard graduated from Bremen High School in 1955 and earned an associate’s degree from West Georgia College in Carrollton before attending John A. Gupton College of Mortuary Science in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated in 1958 as a licensed funeral director and embalmer and returned home to join H.B. and Ruby in the family business full-time, beginning the second generation of the Hightower family’s service to the communities of Bremen, Carrollton, and the surrounding area.
During those early years, Richard married Jacquelyn “Jackie” Harriette Pope, a fellow Haralson County native. Together, Richard and Jackie began building their family and welcomed two sons, Richard “Bryant” Hightower, Jr., born in 1958, and William Pope “Bill” Hightower, born in 1966.
As Richard and Jackie raised their family in Bremen, Richard continued working alongside his parents at Hightower Funeral Home. Funeral service was never merely an occupation for Richard. He had grown up watching his parents care for their neighbors, and he carried that same sense of responsibility throughout his own career.
He also possessed a memory that became almost legendary within his family. Decades after serving someone, Richard could often tell you who their relatives were, where they were buried, what kind of vault was used, and seemingly every detail in between. The thousands of families who passed through the doors of the funeral home over the years were not easily forgotten by Richard.
In 1972, Richard purchased both Hightower Funeral Home in Bremen and Martin & Hightower Funeral Home in Carrollton from his parents, becoming the second generation of the Hightower family to lead the family business. Under his leadership, the foundation established by H.B. and Ruby continued to grow, beginning what would become decades of expansion and service to families throughout West Georgia.
Just two years later, in 1974, Richard and his young sons experienced a profound loss when Jackie passed away.
During those same years, Richard continued the work that had become such an important part of his life. In 1973, he purchased Haralson Memory Gardens, later renamed Forest Lawn Memorial Park, and in 1978, the family’s funeral homes and cemetery operations were consolidated under Martin & Hightower Funeral Home, Inc.
As the years passed, Richard continued building upon the foundation his parents had established. Hillcrest Chapel in Newnan was acquired in 1992, and Hightower’s Memorial Chapel was established in Douglasville in 1999. That same year, Richard joined his son, Bryant, in developing West Georgia Memorial Park in Carrollton.
Through those endeavors, what H.B. and Ruby began in Bremen grew into a family legacy of serving communities throughout West Georgia. Richard was particularly proud to see his sons become part of that work and, eventually, to watch another generation of his family choose funeral service as well. What began with his parents became a calling carried through four generations of the Hightower family.
Richard’s influence in funeral service extended far beyond the communities he served each day. Throughout his career, he was committed to strengthening the profession and sharing the knowledge he had gained over a lifetime of service. For more than thirty-eight years, he served on the Board of Trustees of John A. Gupton College of Mortuary Science, the school that had prepared him for his own career. He served as President of the Academy of Graduate Embalmers of Georgia and as a member of the Georgia State Board of Funeral Service from 1990 until 1998. He also held leadership roles with the Independent Funeral Directors of Georgia, Associated Funeral Directors Service, the Georgia Cemetery Association, and other professional organizations. His involvement reflected not only his love for funeral service, but his desire to see the profession he had devoted his life to remain strong for the generations that would follow him.
That same sense of responsibility extended to the communities Richard called home. Over the years, he served as Chairman of the Bremen Industrial Development Authority and devoted twenty-one years of service to the Bremen Housing Authority Board. He was also involved with the Haralson County Chamber of Commerce, the Carrollton Jaycees, and the Bremen Merchants Club, and was a member of Bremen Masonic Lodge No. 456 and Yaarab Temple. Richard’s roots ran deep throughout West Georgia, and his civic involvement was simply another way he invested in the communities where he lived, worked, raised his family, and spent a lifetime serving others.
Richard’s faith remained an important part of his life. For more than seventy-eight years, he was a member of First Baptist Church of Bremen, and he also held a special love for Union Campground, where he served as a trustee. Camp meeting was a tradition he looked forward to year after year; a familiar gathering of faith, family, friends, and memories. Richard especially loved the old gospel songs and hymns that had accompanied him throughout his life. Jackie had been a gifted singer herself, and those old songs remained especially meaningful to him, bringing comfort through the years and connecting him to his faith, to so many people, and to memories he held dear. For Richard, few things could stir the heart quite like an old gospel song sung the way he remembered it.
Those accomplishments, however, tell only part of Richard’s story.
Somewhere along the way, Richard became Umpa.
To his grandchildren, Umpa was not primarily the funeral director whose name appeared on buildings or the man whose professional résumé could fill a page. He was their grandfather—with an extraordinary memory, an unmistakable personality, an appreciation for beautiful things, and a way of doing things that was entirely his own.
Richard was a collector in the truest sense of the word. Through the years, there were classic cars, marble-top tables, antiques of seemingly every description, and hundreds upon hundreds of lamps. He surrounded himself with things he found beautiful and interesting, and nearly everything came with a story.
He could tell you where an antique came from, when he bought it, why it was special, and what made it worth keeping. When it came to his lamps, he knew exactly which shade belonged on which base and usually had a very good reason why no other combination would do.
Richard loved history and the stories attached to things. Perhaps that was part of the reason he remembered people so well, too. Whether discussing an antique he had purchased decades earlier or a funeral he had directed in 1982, details seemed to stay with him.
He loved dogs, and his home always seemed to have room for them. He loved to travel, particularly when there was an antique show to attend or an old friend to visit. Richard was independent enough that his travels sometimes came as news to his family only after he had reached his destination. More than once, he would get in the car, take off on a trip, and call Bryant or Bill after he arrived to let him know where he had gone.
He also loved to eat.
Richard could begin planning supper while still eating lunch, a trait inherited from his father and successfully passed down through the generations that followed. He especially loved sweets and desserts, and some of his family’s simplest memories involving food became some of their sweetest.
Richard was not one for grand displays of sentiment, but his family never had to wonder whether he was proud of them. He told them so. If he was invited, he showed up. Birthdays, graduations, weddings, and family milestones mattered to him. And his granddaughters could always count on hearing one particular question from Umpa:
“Did you fall out of your desk today?”
Even as the world around him changed, some things about Richard never did. He remained decidedly old-school, especially when it came to funeral service. For years, his mornings began by listening to the radio obituaries. He regularly called the funeral home early to find out what had happened and what families were being served, sometimes before his sons or granddaughters had even arrived at work. The funeral home was not something Richard simply retired from; it was part of the rhythm of his life.
Technology and changing times occasionally required some convincing. His family still remembers the conversation in which they finally had to break the news to Umpa that funeral homes would no longer be advertising in the Yellow Pages, a development he was not entirely prepared to embrace.
For all Richard accomplished during his lifetime, the titles he held, organizations he led, and businesses he built tell only part of his story.
His life can also be found in a funeral home in Bremen where a sixteen-year-old boy once washed cars for his father; in generations of families whose stories he somehow never forgot; in the businesses his sons and grandchildren continue today; in a house filled with beautiful things collected over a lifetime; in dogs that always had a place there; in an antique discovered on some faraway trip; in planning supper before lunch was finished; and in countless birthdays, graduations, weddings, and family occasions where, when invited, he showed up.
Richard spent most of his life helping other families remember the people they loved. In doing so, he became part of the story of West Georgia himself.
But to the people who loved him most, his greatest legacy was much simpler.
He was their father, their grandfather, their great-grandfather—their Umpa and PePaw.
Richard was preceded in death by his parents, Herschel Bryant “H.B.” Hightower and Ruby Thompson Hightower; his loving wife and the devoted mother of his sons, Jacquelyn “Jackie” Harriette Pope Hightower.
He leaves behind to cherish his memory Bryant and Cathy Hightower, Bill and Susan Hightower, Chris Wright and his fiancée, Amanda Stewart, Ryan Smith and his wife, Erika, Tyler Smith, Jacquelyn Cason Hightower, Jacquelyn Brooke Hightower McKinzie and her husband, Dalton, Karlie Richelle Hightower, MacKenzie Harriett Hightower Daniel and her husband, Ben, Kelly Stewart and her husband, Zachary, Cole Smith, Maddox Smith, Ayzlin Smith, Beckett Smith, Kambree Stewart, Everhett Stewart, Kassidy Stewart, Chayson Pope McKinzie, and Harriett Mae Daniel due October 2026.
The family will receive friends at Hightower Funeral Home on Thursday, October 1, 2026, from 11:00 AM until 1:00 PM and again that evening at First Baptist Church of Bremen from 3:00 PM until 6:00 PM.
A funeral service will be held to honor and celebrate Richard’s life on Friday, October 2, 206, at 11:00 AM at First Baptist Church of Bremen, with Pastor Hunter Roe officiating. Richard’s body will be placed in the church at 10:00 AM to lie in state until the hour of service.
Interment will follow in Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Chris Wright, Ryan Smith, Tyler Smith, Dalton McKinzie, Ben Daniel, and Shane House will serve as pallbearers. The Hightower Family Funeral Homes staff and his funeral service colleagues will be seated as honorary pallbearers.
A reception will follow at The Shed at Westover Farms, 920 Old Bush Mill Road, Bremen, Georgia, 30110.
For those who wish to make a memorial contribution in Richard’s memory, the family respectfully requests that donations be made to Union Campground or the Funeral Service Foundation.