Isaac Lindsey spent much of his adult life as an undertaker in Texas. Born in Cartersville, Georgia, on March 6, 1848, he married Mary E. Talley (1853–1931) in Marshall County, Tennessee, in 1870. At that time he was working as a carpenter. He continued that occupation when the couple moved to Sherman, Texas, by 1880.

In 1891, the Denison City Directory listed Isaac Lindsey as an undertaker and funeral director at 517–519 West Main Street. He and Mary were living at 612 West Crawford Street.
In January 1892 Undertaker S. Harriman sold his business and stock in trade to Lindsey; the goods were moved from 421 to 509 W. Main Street.  ("Local Condensations." The Sunday Gazetteer, Sunday, January 31, 1892, pg. 4)

In 1896, Isaac and Mary were living at 506 West Main, next door to the Lindsey funeral parlor. In June of 1900, the U.S. Census found Isaac and Mary still living at 506 West Main. He was listed as an undertaker. At the same address was another family, Frank Frederick, a German immigrant butcher; his wife Rose; and their ten-year-old son Guy. Also present was Ellery C. Dempsy, age 26, nephew of the Fredericks; he was a machinist on the railroad.

Around the turn of the century, the Commercial College was converted into the first Denison Hotel.  In 1909, this hotel boasted electric elevators, private baths, steam heat, phone in all rooms, a barber shop, billiard parlors, and dining room.
The hotel served the community until it was destroyed in a devastating fire in January of 1920.

Apparently the Denison funeral home proved untenable, for the Lindseys were not listed in the Denison City Directory in 1907 and 1909. In 1910, the Census found them in Lubbock, Texas. Isaac was an undertaker in "own store."  On 20 February 1911 Isaac Lindsay sold land to the Denison Cemetery Association for Fairview Cemetery enlargement at a cost of $4,500.  Isaac and his wife Mary were eventually buried in the Fairview Cemetery upon their deaths of 1929 and 1931, respectively.

Ten years later, Isaac and Mary were back in Denison, apparently in retirement. The 1920 Census showed them living at 1123 West Walker Street, and he had no occupation.

That same year, the great fire destroyed the Denison Hotel and the adjoining building at 506 West Main Street. At that time, Will H. Halton and his partner John L. Swank were operating a funeral parlor at 508–510 West Main.