About Us

The original funeral home was known as Fortuna Mortuary and was founded and built in 1940 by Rex Henry Musser, his then wife Charlotte Evers Musser, and brother-in-law Cecil Evers. They sold the mortuary to Max A. Goble and his father Clyde in 1946 and they renamed the mortuary to “Goble’s Fortuna Mortuary.” Later Jim Widdoes, who started his Mortuary career in Santa Rosa February 1, 1958, graduated from San Francisco College of Mortuary Science in 1961 and was hired by the Goble Family July 1, 1961 and was asked to become a partner in the business in 1970. After the death of Max Goble in 2004 Jim Widdoes brought his son Marc Widdoes and Son-in-law Tom Howe into the business.

Before the mortuary was built at the corner of 12th and L Streets there was a garage and blacksmith shop that was torn down to make room for the mortuary in 1940. In 1940, 12th Street was still a dirt road. Next door to the Mortuary was the Assembly of God Church which was purchased by the Goble Family in the 1960’s and became a full part of the Mortuary in 1976 when everything was remodeled after an arson fire. Behind Goble’s, where U.S. Bank is today, were residential homes. One of the homes was moved to 8th and N Streets and another was moved to Ross Hill Road and became the Parsonage for the Church of The Nazarene.

In May 2014 Bryan Carnahan bought the mortuary from the Widdoes family and is now owned and operated by his family. Even though we have been sold we are still your family owned small town mortuary, we live in your community and help support our surrounding areas as we have been for the past 70+ years.