funeral home

Artis Funeral Parlor succeeds!

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

——

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.

Darden Funeral Home’s temporary location.

Wilson Daily Times, 26 June 1948.

Darden and Sons Funeral Homes moved into temporary space while they completed their iconic faux-Tudor building in the 600 block of East Nash Street. The location? Founder Charles H. Darden’s old “home place” on Pender Street. That house has long been demolished, but appears on a 1940 aerial photograph of the area.

(1) is First Baptist Church; (2) is Saint John A.M.E. Zion; and the old Darden house is indicated with an arrow.

Dardens cross the color line.

Until about the 1930s, white undertakers occasionally handled African-American bodies, but this is the sole instance I have found of a Black undertaker preparing a white person for burial. Here, Charles H. Darden & Son buried the infant son of Walter Pool and Pennie Gordon, who was “premature lived only a few hrs after birth.”

Comments on the history of Darden funeral home.

Wilson Daily Times, 2 July 1976.

(1) Do these “records of burial preparations” still exist? If so, where?

(2) “The Oddfellows’ Cemetery apparently accepted blacks for burial.” Well … yes. But Odd Fellows Cemetery is not the same as Rest Haven Cemetery. The “other old cemetery” was Oakdale/Oakland.

(3) Who was Tom Woodard and in what way was he instrumental in getting Charles H. Darden‘s business started?

Lightner works for Darden.

My recent examination of World War I draft registration cards from Wilson County is yielding pleasant surprises. For example, I had no idea that South Carolina native Lawrence T. Lightner, brother of prominent Raleigh builder and funeral director Calvin E. Lightner and founder of Goldsboro’s Lightner Funeral Home had lived in Wilson and worked for Charles H. Darden. He seems not to have stayed long, for by the 1920 census L.T. Lightner is listed as an undertaker in Goldsboro.

Darden and Son funeral home’s address was 610 East Nash Street. 615 was a small shotgun house across the street that the business, or Darden himself, may have owned.

The family would not take him; Darden sold the body to Wake Forest.

Caught rifling through a money drawer, James Hinton lost a shoot-out with a storeowner northwest of Wilson. Though his family gave information for his death certificate, they refused to arrange with Darden Funeral Home for his burial. Following their suggestion, Darden sold the man’s body to the medical school at Wake Forest College.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 23 September 1933.

Wilson Daily Times, 26 September 1933.

——

James Hinton [not John or Hinnant] died 21 September 1933 at Moore-Herring Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 45 years old; was born in Wendell, North Carolina; worked as a laborer; and lived at the Biltmore Hotel. Cause of death: “was dead from bullet wound when I saw him shot thru abdomen.” Allie P. Hinton, Wendell, was informant. Written in the margin: “was shot robbing a store.”

Isaac W. Lee’s reach.

County lines did not define the communities to which people belonged. Residents of Wilson County’s Stantonsburg, Black Creek, and Cross Roads townships often had close family, social, and business ties across the line in Wayne County, and the town of Wilson was a common destination for many living in northern Wayne.

Isaac W. Lee spent his entire life in and around the town of Fremont in north-central Wayne County. A man with multiple talents and an expansive business sense, Lee simultaneously worked as a tailor and a grocer before starting an undertaking business.

Lee was born about 1888 in northern Wayne County. In the 1900 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: farmer Isa J. Lee, 41, and children Hend, 18, Adie, 17, Pearly, 16, and Isac W., 13.

In the 1910 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: Isaac Lee, 23, and Amos Daniel, 20, partners in a pressing club and tailoring business.

On 2 April 1913, Isaac W. Lee, 25, married Eva Aldridge, 20, daughter of George and Dora Aldridge, in Fremont, Wayne County. [Eva’s brother Prince A. Aldridge lived in Wilson from the 1920s until his death in 1953.]

In 1917, Isaac William Lee registered for the World War I draft in Wayne County. Per his registration card, he was born 14 April 1887 in Fremont; lived in Fremont; worked as a “merchants tailor” for Best and Cobb in Fremont; was married; and had a physical disability.

In the 1910s, Lee kept accounts on sheets of letterhead that touted both his businesses.

Lee’s business card. J.L Taylor & Co. was a large custom clothier. 

In the 1920 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: presser Isaac Lee, 33, and wife Eva, 29.

By the 1920s, Lee’s letterhead had dropped reference to his grocery store.

In the 1930 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: on Goldsboro Street, in a house owned and valued at $1500, grocery store day laborer Isaac W. Lee, 42, widower.

This undated letterhead features a photograph of the building housing his businesses. A quick Google Maps search shows the building still stands at 110 South Goldsboro Street, Fremont. 

Lee appears to have begun offering funeral services in the 1930s. He posted the notice below, for a burial in Fremont’s all-Black cemetery, in the Wilson Daily Times.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 April 1939.

In the 1940 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: funeral director Isaac W. Lee, 49, and nephew John T. Jones, 23, presser in dry cleaning business.

I.W. Lee was not one of the principal funeral homes serving Wilson County families, but many opted for his care, including:

Detail of death certificate of Charlie Edwards, died 20 January 1940, Wilson, buried in Rountree [probably Vick] Cemetery.

Detail of death certificate of John Davis, died 28 April 1942, Wilson, buried in Rountree [probably Vick] Cemetery.

Detail of death certificate of Warren Rountree, died 24 February 1943, Wilson, buried in Rountree [probably Vick] Cemetery.

Detail of death certificate of Cornelius Dew, died 30 July 1944, Cross Roads township, Wilson County, buried in a rural cemetery.

In the 1950 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: Isaac W. Lee, 63, manager of retail store-funeral home, and son Jesse T., 14, sales clerk at retail store. They lived on “Goldsboro St. 1st Blk S of Main” in “apt over I.W. Lee store.”

I.W. Lee’s building today, Google Street View.

Isaac William Lee died 10 October 1970 at his home in Fremont, Wayne County. Per his death certificate, he was born 14 April 1889 to Isaac Lee and Katie Randolph; was a widower; worked as a “funeral director and merchant (general store)”; and was buried in Fremont Cemetery by Darden Memorial Funeral Home of Wilson. Jesse Thomas Lee, 608 North Reid Street, Wilson, was informant.

Though Lee’s funeral service was held at Fremont First Baptist, ministers from Wilson’s Calvary Presbyterian Church officiated.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 October 1970.

I.W. Lee Account Book and related documents courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

Darden Funeral Home’s new building.

Wilson Daily Times, 11 June 1949.

The grand opening of the Tudor-style Darden Funeral Home building many remember near the intersection of Nash and Pender Streets.

  • “the wife of C.L. Darden” — Norma Duncan Darden. I had not seen Norma Darden before credited as a designer of this building with architect C.C. Benton.
  • C.H. Darden — Charles H. Darden.
  • C.L. Darden — Camillus L. Darden.
  • Charles Arthur Darden — son of Arthur N. Darden. Born and raised in New York City, Charles A. Darden apparently worked briefly for family business, perhaps stepping in after his father’s death in 1948.
  • Charles James — son of Elizabeth Darden James.
  • Rosalyn Whitehead
  • Dora Dickerson
  • Frank Davis — in the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Frank Davis, 42, assistant manager of funeral home; wife Beulah, 46; and son Frank Jr., 10.
  • Burnice Renfrow — in the 1940 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer Johnie Renfrow, 50; wife Mary Ellen, 49; and children Burniss, 21, David, 18, Minnie, 16, and Ree, 13. The same year, Burnice Elwood Renfrow registered for the World War II draft. Per his registration card, he was born 3 March 1918 in Wilson County; lived at R.F.D. #3, Kenly, Wilson County; his contact was his mother Mary Ellen Renfrow; and he worked for Johnnie Renfrow. 
  • Joe N. Williams
  • Louis Hines
  • Velma Carroll — in the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 907 Washington, Walter Carroll, 44, machinist helper at local oil plant, and wife Velma, 36, practical nurse at local funeral home.
  • Elizabeth Morgan — Elizabeth Darden James Morgan.
  • David Hines
  • E.D. Fisher — Edwin D. Fisher.
  • Henry Speight
  • Oscar Ellis

The new Darden Memorial Funeral Home, circa 1950.

Photo provided by Lu-Ann Monson, original in Wilson City Archives.