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Funereal Friday
The Charleston Nine

The Charleston Nine

Southern Mourning | from Southern Calls Issue 16, September 2017 (Opening Image: June 22, 2007 – Charleston 9 Firefighters ServicePresident, Mike McDaniel,1999-00 (head), President Thomas E. Baker II, 2007-08 (foot) Photographer – We are very appreciative to SCFDA...

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Man O’ War’s Funeral

Man O’ War’s Funeral

Southern Mourning | from Southern Calls Issue 9, September 2015 (Opening Image: As visitors look on, legendary thoroughbred Man O’ War lies in state in a casket lined with his racing colors at owner...

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The Art of Undertaking

The Art of Undertaking

Here are three powerful images that I believe capture the essence of our beloved Profession - Mike Squires ABOVE: The Recessional | Mac Brown, Photography “Red clay fills the hole left in our...

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Dr. Smith’s Grave Window

Dr. Smith’s Grave Window

Dr. Timothy Clark Smith | June 14, 1821 - February 15, 1893 (Opening Image: Timothy Clark Smith Grave Window, Photo credit: Geoff Howard/Panoramio) Evergreen Cemetery, just off Town Hill Road in New...

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The “Bear”

The “Bear”

Southern Calls Vol. 3, March 2014 After the 1982 season, Paul William “Bear” Bryant, 69, announced his decision to retire, stating, "This is my school, my alma mater. I love it and I love my...

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Christmas Mourning

Christmas Mourning

School classmates serve as pallbearers and carry the casket of one of four members of a family who died in the Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta, from the Central Methodist Church in Fitzgerald,...

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Rewards of the Cremators

Rewards of the Cremators

Casket and Sunnyside - December, 1906 There are in Manila and vicinity some first class crematories erected on American designs and controlled by Americans. These crematories are utilized to burn...

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Seated Burial Casket

Seated Burial Casket

SEATED BURIAL CASKET,  Patent No. 964439Application filed December 18, 1909, Patented July 12, 1910 To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, ANGELO RAFFAELE LERRO, a subject of the King of...

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Funeral of a Midget

Funeral of a Midget

Che Mah (1838-1926) Striving towards a normal life in spite of an abnormal body, this dwarf was twice married, amassed a small fortune, and died at 88. -- The South Bend Tribune, September 30, 1956...

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Aftermath of an Execution

Aftermath of an Execution

“. . . We are not here to judge him but to bury him. May God have mercy on his soul.” Southern Calls, Vol. 21, September 2018 . . . We left to go to the funeral and were told that a minister was...

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Martha Was Right!

Martha Was Right!

Undertakings Southern Calls, Vol. 23, March 2019 Martha Elizabeth Beall Mitchell gained worldwide recognition for her outspokenness during the Watergate scandal – a scandal that forced President...

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Unalaska  |  1923-1931

Unalaska | 1923-1931

Southern Calls, Vol. 13, September 2016 Southern Mourning by Lora D. Peppers | Monroe, Louisiana Tucked away in the flowerbeds of the old Georgia Tucker schoolhouse, is a large tombstone, which...

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Falcon Fluid is Perfection

Falcon Fluid is Perfection

From The Sunnyside | September 1904 Information on The Max Huncke Chemical Company gathered from Brownstoner.com There are chemical companies and there are chemical companies. This one specialized...

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Paradise Revisited

Paradise Revisited

From Southern Calls, Volume 23 | March 2019 In recent days several fires, including Bear Fire, have been raging not far from Paradise.   As of September 10, 2020, a total of 7,694...

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National Select Morticians

National Select Morticians

From Southern Calls, Volume 22 | December 2018 1950 - A fascinating educational innovation in the 1950s was National Selected Morticians (NSM) creation of model casket displays. More than forty...

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The NFDA Story

The NFDA Story

From our Upcoming PLACES article in Southern Calls | September 2020 Subscribe by Monday, August 17, 2020 to receive this historic and collectible issue of Southern Calls. Individual copies may be...

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The Blood Embalming Board

The Blood Embalming Board

Charles Blood -- Dunkirk, New York | The Casket, December 1899 This photo-engraving shows a body laid out on The Blood Embalming Board. The entire construction, together with the drapery, and next...

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Unknown Soldier

Unknown Soldier

America’s Unknown Soldier Comes Home to His Native Soil For him, our Unknown Soldier, it is all over; the sadness of parting from loved ones, the long ocean voyage, the grind of the training camps,...

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Bet Lost

Bet Lost

Jonesboro, Georgia | November 4, 1949 Bill Eubanks (R) lost an election bet to O.I. Carroll, (L) when he agreed to ride in a hearse through the streets of Jonesboro.  Eubanks not only lost but...

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Grave Marker

Grave Marker

Patent 1,573,268, filed July 6, 1925 | William F. Norman, Nevada, Mo. A grave marker including a rear plate having a hinging bead upon its upper edge throughout the length thereof, and apertured...

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The Recessional

The Recessional

The Art of Undertaking | From our Limited Series of prints by Southern Calls “Red clay fills the hole left in our hearts. Only flowers remain as guardians of the grave, until they too wither and...

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Corpse Lifter

Corpse Lifter

Patented July 27, 1880 by Edward B. Carter of Huntsville, Alabama To all whom it may concern:Be it known that I, EDWARD B. CARTER, of Huntsville, in the county of Madison and State of Alabama, have...

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The Complete Embalmer

The Complete Embalmer

And the Story of Thomas Holmes, MD The embalming craze took off when an Army Medical Corps colonel (and close friend of President Lincoln) became the first Union officer to be killed. On May 24,...

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Undertakers Progress

Undertakers Progress

Rubber-Tired Carriages for Church Aisles are New Invention Among the many new appliances of the up-to-date undertakers is the casket carriage, upon which a burial casket may be moved up the aisle of...

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McCarthy’s Irish Wake

McCarthy’s Irish Wake

"A Bully Good Fellow Was He" This photo depicts a “typical” Irish wake, although perhaps embellished for entertainment value -- these stereoview images are collectibles from the late 1800’s. Far...

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