OGDENSBURG -- Allen-Nichols Funeral Home, 324 New York Ave., is under new ownership and will now be called LaRue and Pitcher Funeral Home.

Charlene Johnson-Allen has sold the business to her business partners Nicole LaRue and Christopher Pitcher.

The business was founded as Nichols Funeral Service in 1938 by Benjamin and Vera Nichols. Vera Nichols sold it to William and Charlene Allen in 1996.

LaRue and Pitcher are both 2001 Ogdensburg Free Academy graduates.

LaRue started her career working with Allen-Nichols Funeral Home for two years while she completed SUNY Canton’s mortuary science program. In 2004, she went on to her residency and over a decade of employment as a funeral director and lead pre-need specialist at Lundy Funeral Home in Carthage. In 2014, she opened the Northridge Cremation Chapel in Philadelphia. She is the daughter of Shelley and William Breen of Ogdensburg. She is married to Steven C. LaRue. They have two sons, Zakkary and Alexander.

Pitcher is a 2003 graduate of SUNY Canton’s mortuary science program. For over half of his career, he has worked as a funeral director in Ogdensburg. He has also worked as a funeral counselor for Service Corporation International in Syracuse and Binghamton and a funeral director and crematory operator in Middlebury, Vt.

For the past two years, he has been assisting in operating Cleveland Funeral Homes in Watertown, Cape Vincent and Chaumont, and North Country Cremation Service. He is the son of Myra and Curtis Pitcher of Ogdensburg. He is married to Catherine (Tinsley) Pitcher.

Also joining the staff of LaRue & Pitcher Funeral Home will be Mike Myers, an Ogdensburg native with 22 years’ experience as a funeral director. He is also employed by the Department of Homeland Security and a member of the Ogdensburg school district Board of Education. He is married to Nikki (Perretta) Myers and he has three children.

In 2014, both LaRue and Pitcher co-founded cremation services in Jefferson County. North Country Cremation Service in Chaumont and Northridge Cremation Chapel in Philadelphia.

LaRue & Pitcher Funeral Home will offer a full spectrum of traditional burial and cremation options to Ogdensburg and the surrounding communities,” a news release from the funeral home reads. “The firm participates in funeral trust and pre-planning programs and will offer the finest memorialization options and products available.”

During and after the transition, Johnson-Allen will assist as requested. The release says she intends to focus on her DeKalb Junction business, Allen-Denesha Funeral Home.

LaRue and Pitcher Funeral Home’s phone number is 393-2220 and website is www.laruepitcher.com