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 Two funeral
homes haveshared the Sanders family name over seven decades Interviews by GARY RIDOUT for the Smithfield Weekly Sun
WALTER SANDERS FUNERAL HOME Sandra Meachem: Walter
Sanders was my father. He was born on November 22,
1919. He was a Smithfield native growing up in the
Gray Town section (in West Smithfield). In 1949 he
started the Walter Sanders Funeral Home. From 1949 to
1964, the funeral home was located on Market Street in
Smithfield. In 1964, the business moved to its present
location at 302 South Bright Leaf Boulevard. Before
opening his own funeral home, he served an
apprenticeship with Hamilton Funeral Home in
Smithfield. My father and his brother, my Uncle
Richmond Sanders, worked together in the funeral
business. Uncle Richmond was a licensed embalmer, and
my father was a licensed funeral director. My father
loved the funeral business and worked in it until he
transitioned in 1993. My father pursued different
innovative ideas related to the funeral industry
throughout his life. One
day I asked my grandmother: "Grandma, has Daddy always
wanted to be in the funeral business?” She laughed and
replied that he seemed to love it as far back as she
could remember. She said that when Walter was about 10
years old, he had his brother (my Uncle Bill Sanders)
lie on the couch, pretending he was dead. My father
would act as though he was a funeral director and do a
service for his “deceased” brother! Before
my father passed away, he asked my husband Frank if he
would get his funeral directing license. Frank got his
license, and we helped manage the business. My uncle,
Elias Sanders, also helped manage the business after
my father passed away. Right now my cousin, Tony
Nixon, is the manager of Walter Sanders Funeral Home.
My husband Frank and I oversee the business and
continue the tradition of service to the community. People
in Smithfield love this funeral home. They call me and
say: “We remember your daddy, and we loved him; we
want our service to be at Walter Sanders Funeral
Home.” When we have a funeral service for a family, it
is like them coming into our home. It's an emotional
time for them, and they appreciate the concern and
service we give them…. People
ask me: “How long will you be in business?” My answer
is we will keep doing this as long as the telephone
keeps ringing. We have three daughters, and they have
expressed some interest in coming into the business,
but we are not sure how interested they are. One
thing that happened in 1970 was quite interesting. You
may remember an R&B singer named Billy Stewart? He
was famous for songs such as “Summertime,” “Sitting in
the Park, and “Fat Boy.” One of his concert dates was
in Columbia, South Carolina. Stewart and three members
of his band were driving south on Interstate 95 near
Smithfield when the driver lost control of the car and
it plunged into the Neuse River. They were all killed
as the vehicle sank into the water. His body was
brought to Walter Sanders Funeral Home before being
taken to Washington, D.C. for burial.
In partnership with WHUT-TV (Howard University
Television), a Public Broadcasting program entitled
”Fat Boy: The Billy Stewart Story” involved an
interview here at the funeral home. The broadcast
aired in June 2020 on PBS during Black Music Month.
I
grew up in Wadesboro, which is near Charlotte. I had
some funeral experience because I worked with my
cousin's funeral home in New York for a short time. He
would call me and ask me to help with a removal. A
removal in the funeral business is going to a home or
business and picking up a deceased person. When a
deceased person was picked up, we would place an
object behind the neck to support the head as the body
is transported. This object is called a “rest.” One
time when we were transporting a body, the rest fell
out and landed on my foot. It almost made me drop the
body! I learned to be very careful after that. During
my time in New York, I also worked with Nedicks
Bottling Company. Nedicks was a local New York company
that made flavored soda and hot dogs. Nedicks was the
distributor for YooHoo chocolate soda, which can still
be found in specialty stores and the North Carolina
Farmers Market. Another
job I had in New York was waiting tables at Wilt
Chamberlain's restaurant called Small Paradise. I met
Wilt Chamberlain while I was there. I was waiting on
some customers one day, and I felt someone come up
behind me. I turned, and all I saw was his belt buckle
and chest! He is a tall man. He had a Mercedes sports
car that had no back seat. He was so tall he had to
push the front seat way to the back to drive…. After
leaving New York, I went to North Carolina A&T,
and Sandra went to Bennett College (both in
Greensboro). That's how we met. The thing that
motivated me to continue to work in the funeral
business was Walter Sanders. He was such a stalwart
individual in the community, and he meant a lot to the
town of Smithfield. We wanted to support that and
continue his legacy…. In
the last 15 years, we have moved more into the area of
cremation. One of the reasons for this is that more
people want their loved ones cremated. When my father
was in the funeral business, everyone wanted their
loved one's body in a casket to be buried. The mindset
now is that your soul is gone once you have passed
away. Many people used to say: “I may burn later, but
I don't want to burn now, too.” That thinking has
changed. People are beginning to realize that loved
ones are left after someone dies and the soul of the
deceased person is gone. Cremation offers a less
expensive way of dealing with funeral costs.
Frank
& Sandra
SANDERS
FUNERAL HOME
Hugh Sanders: Richmond
Sanders
was
my father. He was born in 1923. He started Sanders
Funeral home in 1957. Previously this was the location
for Woodard's Funeral Home – in business beginning in
the 1930s. There was also a Hamilton Funeral home in
Smithfield. My father and my uncle, Walter Sanders,
worked for Hamilton Funeral Home. My father bought out
Woodard Funeral Home in the mid-1950s and then opened
Sanders Funeral Home for business in 1957. I was
going to North Carolina Central (University) to be a
public-school teacher. My dad said: “Go get your
funeral directing and embalming license. Then if I
ever need you or you get tired of teaching, you can
come back to Smithfield and work here.” I loved
teaching because teachers are off on the weekends and
in the summer, and I love riding motorcycles. My dad
was in his 40s when I was born, and he was deceased
before I was 30 years old. He got sick shortly after I
graduated, so I came here to help out. I was
licensed in 1988 and was already working part-time for
several funeral homes doing embalming. In addition to
doing embalming work here, I worked at Nixon Funeral
Home in Wilmington and Barnes Funeral Home in Clayton.
All during my high-school years I dug graves, set up
tents, and washed funeral cars. I knew the business
pretty well. It was an easy transition when I began to
manage Sanders Funeral Home. I
learned early on that to be successful in this
business you need to be very knowledgeable of the
entire industry. I would recommend to anyone that they
should get licensure in (both) embalming and funeral
directing so they can get a complete picture of the
funeral business.
The
primary key to the funeral business is to make good
relationships. If you do the right thing with people,
good business will follow.
There
was a lady in the lobby of the funeral home a few
moments ago. I remember her from 25 years ago because
I buried her grandmother. Back then, I was very young
in the business, and many people didn't want a
twenty-something-year-old helping with a funeral. She
came in then, and we took care of her grandmother. She
has come back because she has just lost her son. We
had a good relationship then; we have one now. She
knows I am here to help her. I
remember a few years back I took care of the funeral
service for Lorenzo Charles. You may remember he made
the winning shot that won the national basketball
championship for North Carolina State University in
1983. I had to find a large venue to handle all the
people who would be coming to pay their respects to
this great person and athlete. I
went to Wake Chapel Church in Raleigh. Reverend J.J.
Wilkerson is the pastor. The church seats three
thousand people. The day I went there to look into
having the service, I spoke to one of the deacons of
the church. He told me that only members’ services
were held at the church. I was very disappointed. Pastor
Wilkerson
pulled up in the parking lot as I was leaving. I had
met him because we both have antique cars, and he had
spoken to me at several funerals. It had been a while,
so I wasn't sure he would remember me. Pastor
Wilkerson got out of his car and said: "Hey Sanders,
how are you doing? What are you doing up here in
Raleigh?” I
told him the situation and what the deacon had said
about the church membership requirement. He said:
"Look, you and I have a great relationship; I have
some influence here at the church; give me a few
minutes to speak to some of my folks.” In a few
minutes, he came out and said: "Tell me what you
need," and everything was put together because I had
fostered a relationship with him. |
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