The Mountain Chronicle · Chapter 02
In March 1920, James H. Atchley applied for and received his license as an embalmer — the first person in all of Sevier County to hold that credential. He was working in the furniture trade at the time, as was the custom of the era. Furniture makers built the tables and chairs for the living; they also built the caskets for the dead. James saw both as honest work, and he was determined to do it with care.
His wife, Blanche Kyker Atchley, stood beside him from the beginning. Together they raised three sons — Blaine, Bill, and Harold — each of whom grew up sweeping the floors and loading the hearse, and each of whom joined the business as adults.
The early years of Atchley Funeral Home moved through three different addresses along Main Street in Sevierville. In 1948, the family found the location at 118 East Main that the Sevierville chapel still occupies today.
James H. Atchley becomes Sevier County's first licensed embalmer. He opens a funeral practice alongside his furniture business on Main Street, Sevierville — a combination common to the era but rare in quality of care.
After operating at three successive addresses, Atchley Funeral Home settles at 118 East Main Street — the location the Sevierville chapel has called home ever since. The building becomes a landmark of the community.
James's three sons — Blaine, Bill, and Harold Atchley — each take their place in the business. The second generation deepens the family's roots in Sevier County, serving through decades of mountain growth and change.
Albert Atchley, son of the second generation, commits to funeral service full-time — the first of three cousins who would eventually partner together to lead the business through one of funeral service's most rapidly changing eras.
The third generation — Jim, Albert, and D.J. Atchley — step in as partners alongside their fathers. The industry is changing quickly: cremation growing, families dispersing. The Atchleys adapt without losing what they are.
Atchley purchases Smoky Mountain Memory Gardens in Pigeon Forge, renaming it Atchley's Smoky Mountain Chapel & Memory Gardens. The acquisition places the family firmly in the heart of East Tennessee's most-visited corridor.
Atchley opens their third chapel in Seymour, alongside Seymour Memory Gardens. The expansion completes a footprint that now covers the full breadth of Sevier County — from Sevierville to Pigeon Forge to Seymour.
Reed graduates from Carson Newman College in 2005 and joins the family immediately. Adam, too, has chosen to carry the name forward. The fourth generation of Atchleys now serves beside their fathers — the same road, the same promise, 106 years on.
Every person who comes into our care is treated with the same respect we would give our own family. No exception, no compromise.
We provide a General Price List to every family before any commitment is made. Transparent pricing is an act of respect — not a policy.
We have lived in Sevier County for more than a century. These mountains are our home too. We serve them as neighbours, not as a business.
Our doors — and our phones — are open every hour of every day. When you need us, we are here. This has been true since 1920.
No obligation, no pressure. A conversation with one of our directors is always free.