100 years of history by Carol Pelosi
(This was written in 2004, so some landmarks then are long gone.)
Unraveling local history can lead to some interesting yarns, but you also end up with some knots and short ends.
A couple local historians – they have lived here most of their lives and remember what happened – have helped trace some of the town’s funeral home history. A couple more have promised help in the near future.
We are still trying to dig into a hint that the house at the corner of Elm Avenue and South Main Street, now the Bright Funeral Home, was once a fraternity house.
What we have learned is that earlier funeral homes were right in the center of town.
Durward Matheny remembers that his father, Carl, operated a funeral home at the corner of South White and Wait Avenue where Blondi’s Closet is now. (Blondi’s was inside the Wilkinson Building.)
Frank Smith says Smith Furniture Company also was once in that space with Alston’s Barber Shop underneath in the basement and the offices for the two Wilkinson brother physicians, who owned the building, were next door where the barber shop is now.
Around the corner on Brooks Street, Ronnie Mae and Frank Beddingfield operated a funeral service that was housed in the small brick building across from the old town hall, jail and courtroom that now holds the planning and inspections departments. (Its most recent tenants were Wake Forest Police Department detectives who have moved to join the rest of the department in the industrial park on Ligon Mill Road.)
It was the Beddingfields who moved to the yellow house at Elm and South Main where a funeral home has been ever since. Ronnie Mae had a florist shop there along with the funeral home. An enterprising woman, she also owned and operated a nursing home on the east side of North Main Street in the large house that is now being completely renovated.
The Beddingfield Funeral Home became the Wall-Beddingfield Funeral Home when Joe and Elma Wall bought a part-interest.
The Beddingfields sold out to the Walls at some point, who in turn sold the business to Bennie and Lois Daniel.
In 1964 Rodney and Betty Bright moved to town to operate the Daniel Funeral Home, bought an interest, then purchased it when Bennie Daniel died about three years later.
Thumbing through some old notes, we came upon an item demonstrating that the Bright brothers got an early start on business. (They now own the funeral home business with their mother, Betty.) In the summer of 1970, Randy, then 14, and Tommy, 11, ran Bright’s Lawn Service, mowing lawns for 25 customers and making $500. They used it to buy a mini-bike.
Another predominantly white funeral home was the Willis Funeral Home on South Main Street operated by W.L. Willis. His son, Buddy, then ran it but later sold to the Brown-Wynne chain. Brown-Wynne operated it for a few years until it was closed. The building is now occupied by North Wake Church, a congregation which has grown enough to need the new worship center it is building.
Richard Wall had some information about predominantly black funeral homes. He remembers that the Hood family operated a funeral home here. “They moved to Ahoskie in 1971 or 1972 and continued their funeral business there,” Wall said. He also remembered the family had a son, Jesse, who is his age and a daughter, Rhonda, who is the same age as Wall’s older sister.
Lewis Feggins took over the funeral home business then and has operated it ever since.
What do you remember? Can you fill in some of the blanks, correct some mistakes or add some details? Who ran local funeral homes before the Beddingfields and the Hoods? Where were they?
