Why Choose Us

Johnston & Williams is your local, family owned and operated funeral home. We aren't owned by a large corporation.  We're not part of a group of other funeral homes with centralized, out of town management making decisions about what is best for the families we serve.   We are headquartered in Ellensburg and our sole focus is caring for families in our local communities.  

Henry D. Johnston is  one of the few actively practicing funeral directors in the state of Washington to hold the designation of "Certified Funeral Service Practitioner" (CFSP) a designation that he earned in 2019.  To initially receive this designation, the practitioner must first be a fully licensed funeral director and/or embalmer and then complete an additional 180-hour program of continuing education activities and events. To be eligible for recertification, 20 credit hours of continuing education are required annually. In addition to a career review upon initial application, credits are awarded by the Academy for work leading to personal and/or professional growth in the areas of academic courses, professional activities and community and civic participation.

We have also been honored three years in a row by the National Funeral Directors Association as a winner of the "Pursuit of Excellence" Award.  To learn more about why this sets us apart from all other funeral and cremation providers east of the Cascades, click here.

We understand that many families who experience a loss are not regular attendees at church.  Frequently, families say they don't want to have a service because "we don't have a pastor".  At Johnston & Williams, we have a dedicated group of both religious and non-religious officiants available to guide and lead your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

Planning a funeral or memorial service has over 100 individual details that require attention for a flawless event to occur.  At Johnston & Williams, we have developed a proprietary method to the way we approach these details so that your family can focus on what matters - spending time together and supporting each other without having to worry about the finite details of the service.

Our belief is if we give your family a list of more than five items that you need to handle or coordinate yourself after you leave the arrangement conference, then we're not doing our job properly.  By engaging our services to help plan your loved one's funeral or memorial, you can have peace of mind in knowing that it will be done properly, with professionalism, and that no detail will be missed.