By Abby Baker
Staff Intern
When Edwena Haney was 10 years old, she looked at her family’s cemetery and imagined herself running the family business.
In 2005, that dream came true when she became president of Hopewell Funeral Home.
HOME SWEET HOME
At a young age, Haney’s parents got divorced, and with two devoted families to love she got to see the heart of the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World.
“I was raised by a village,” Haney said.
When she was with her father and step-mother she rode her bike to the movie theater and through downtown Plant City.
“If I could go back in time I’d go to 1971 and walk down Collins to Kirby’s Bakery,” Haney said.
At her mother’s home she drove her go-kart and got the behind the scenes of Hopewell Funeral Home.
Her mother, Glenda Haney, and aunt, Margie Willis, ran Hopewell Funeral Home, and many members of her family owned businesses around Plant City.
“When you grow up surrounded by entrepreneurs it becomes important to prove your own self-worth,” Haney said.
After graduating from Plant City High School in 1981 she longed for a life outside of her birthplace.
“As most young people, you leave,” Haney said. “But I didn’t graduate from HCC and my parents were not happy.”
LEAVING THE NEST
One morning, at the Plant City Village Inn, Haney was eating breakfast with her grandfather.
“My grandpa ate breakfast there just about every morning,” Haney said.
But something out of routine was about to happen.
Haney, then 20 years old, began a conversation with a woman who encouraged her to apply for a job at George S. May, a managing consulting company based in Chicago.
Even without a college diploma, a requirement for the position, Haney breezed through the interview and got the job. She moved to the St. Petersburg area soon after. At 21, she was the youngest person to work for the company as a service representative.
She moved up the ladders of multiple companies while moving throughout Florida. When the business she worked for got bought out by a Canadian company in 1996, she decided to return home.
FLYING HOME
“Here, I had my family business, and I’m my mother’s only child,” Haney said.
When she returned home, Haney wasn’t immediately promoted to president of Hopewell Funeral Home — she had to climb up the totem pole.
The presidents at the time were her mother and aunt. They were not going to let Haney’s rise to the top come easy.
There was bookwork, delivery and parking.
Despite being the daughter of one of the owners, Haney got her hands dirty just like any other employee.
In 2005, she became the official president.
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