White cursive text reading “Sweet-Olsen Family Mortuary”
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Our Story

Front entrance of a small office building with white facade, glass doors, and trees shading the walkway

Our Orland Mortuary was originally founded in 1905, as the “T.J. Hicks Company”, in a building located behind Mr. Hicks’ hardware store at 426 Walker Street in Orland. In 1910, Proctor Knott Hicks purchased the “T. J. Hicks Company” from his father and was joined by William Chaney, as his partner in the funeral business. The “Hicks and Chaney Company” continued to serve the families of Orland until 1936, when Delbert W. Sweet bought the company and continued to operate it under his father’s existing business name of “F.D. Sweet & Son” (although they were actually separate and competing firms).


In 1948, Del Sweet built and moved the mortuary we are still using today at 825 A Street. For the next 22 years, the Sweet family proudly served the families of our community from this large and convenient facility. 


In 1970, the Sweet family sold the mortuary to longtime employee, Jack Martin, and his wife, Pat. The Martins were popular pillars of the community for many years. Jack is still fondly remembered for his wild sense of humor. The Martins continued the tradition of faithfully serving the families of Orland for 34 years until they retired to Idaho.


In 2004, James and Suzanne Miller bought the mortuary from the Martins, and yet another chapter was written in our mortuary saga. Jim continued to serve the families of Orland and extended the area served with the opening of “Red Bluff Simple Cremations & Burial Service” in 2007. Jim’s untimely death in December 2016 ultimately resulted in the purchase of the funeral business by Ken and Cynthia Olsen. Proudly combining their name with the 80-year tradition of the Sweet name, the mortuaries are now renamed “Sweet-Olsen Family Mortuary” and “Sweet-Olsen Family Simple Cremations & Burial Service”.


In 2021, we moved out of our Red Bluff location to a much larger facility located across the street from Red Bluff’s Dog Island Park. Sweet-Olsen Family Simple Cremations and Burial Service is now located at 1345 Main Street. Our family is dedicated to offering faithful services to all families of our community and beyond. We continue to be an independent, family-owned and operated mortuary, maintaining the honored heritage created by all the previous owners and employees throughout our company’s 120 + years of funeral service!