Diana Carter and her late husband, Joe Carter, opened Carter Funeral Home in October of 1992, dedicated to offering compassionate quality service at a reasonable cost.  “It was Joe Carter’s dream to open his own funeral home after serving in this profession for some 30 years”.  The funeral home is now operated by Diana Carter and husband Paul Esposito. 

She began working part time helping with hair styling, cosmetics, and office work.  “I quit my job and began working full time at Carter’s in 1997”, she said.  Joe was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 1998 after which he insisted that I attend a mortuary college. “ I graduated a month before he died in 2000”, said Carter.  When Joe died, Carter asked Esposito to come and help run the funeral home during her twelve month internship.  During the time of running the business we fell in love and decided to marry. 

Today after 16 years of operation, our goal is to provide a meaningful and affordable service to each family that we have the honor to serve.  When people are dealing with the death of a loved one, it is a very difficult time for them.  We try to encourage and help direct each family we serve and to arrange the type of service they are most comfortable with be it a traditional service, cremation or a memorial service.  I try to encourage people to pre-arrange and pre-pay for their services for two reasons.-  It save’s the family left behind from making difficult decisions at the time of death and freezes the cost of funeral services, often taking away the financial burden.  Nothing is getting cheaper and families continue to be burdened with their own cost of living.  Paying for a funeral and /or cemetery is just not possible for many.  Governmental regulations also hinder the family when taking over their loved ones financial ,insurance and estate proceeds.

Carter grew up in the Channelview area and is a 1971 graduate of Channelview High School.  “I am a community-minded person.  We try to participate in and support as many community activities and businesses as possible.”  She has one son, Garrett Smith, who graduated from Northshore High School in 2003 and lives and works in Austin, Texas.  Carter feels the most rewarding part of her job is knowing the families will come back when they need to. “I have many families who come back because of our caring, personalized services and our family like atmosphere. Knowing that we provide the services that keep them coming back is a good thing,” she said.  “The downside of the job is it is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job.”  When they can, Carter and Esposito enjoy their occasional time off. “I like to garden or cook and Paul likes to ride his motorcycle.  We both like to take long motorcycle trips with our friends. 

My hope is to continue making improvements to the funeral home and assisting families in our community for years to come. 

Carter Funeral Home consists of a chapel that will seat 300 , with sizeable state rooms.  The members of the staff are committed to seeing that families are made to feel at home during a most difficult time. 

Families are often encouraged to consider prearranged and prepaid funeral plans to  lessen the burden of funeral costs when a death occurs, and this gives one peace of mind.  Carter Funeral Home will arrange burial at any cemetery a family wishes to use, and will honor most prepaid funeral plans.

Everyone is encouraged to come by to visit and see our funeral home facility.  Our staff currently consists of full time staff: Diana Carter, Paul Exposito, Diana's parents, August and Maxine Thamm, Cheryl Westra, Mary Ann Galvan, Durwood Radican, Steve Kotal, Brad Conley and Lisa West.