Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 May 1933.

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Though he is little-remembered now, for several decades in the early-to-mid 1900s, Columbus E. Artis was the premier black undertaker in Wilson. Here’s what Samuel C. Lathan recently told me about him:

SCL: … One time, I remember C.E. Artis — I think it was a ‘48 hearse. They went to Detroit and bought that thing. And it had a record player in it. And then it had a hydraulic cable in it where, when you open up the side, that hydraulic would raise up and come out, and the casket would come out by itself.

LYH: Wow.

SCL: And the pallbearers would stand right there and take it right out. Oh, man, it was all kind of – them people would wear hickory-stripe pants, black wool and silk jacket with the vest. Aw, man …. Wont no patent leather. Everybody’s shoes was just shined.

…

LYH: And it’s funny because you talk about things that people don’t talk about. When I, you know, when I tell people that at one time C.E. Artis and Darden were rivals.

SCL: That’s right.

LYH: I mean, C.E. Artis was just as big as Darden was.

SCL: Yeah. Yeah.

…

SCL: And then Darden didn’t have the business that C.E. had.

LYH: Mm-hmm.

SCL: Darden was the old-fashioned thing. Even … I remember one time I was talking to Charles [Darden James], … [and] Charles was saying, “Well, you know, we’re the old standby.” I never will forget that, you know? But C.E. – see, until Hamilton came to Wilson, C.E. was the sporting one. C.E. was the town. C.E. was the thing, man. C.E. was the thing. Yessir buddy. Yeah.