Collins Funeral Home records

The records of the Collins Funeral Home consist of correspondence, meeting minutes, legal documents, financial records, general business records, printed ephemera, newsletters, and memorabilia. Resonating throughout the collection include the contributions of two African American women in the male-dominated funeral and mortuary science profession. This collection is ideal for the study of African American small businesses, businesswomen, and the exploration of the intersectionality of African American businesses in the south and the modern Civil Rights Movement.

The correspondence includes business letters, personal letters, and memoranda with the majority centered on business matters related to the funeral service companies – Frazier and Collins Funeral Home, the Hall and Collins Funeral home, and the Collins Funeral Home. The Collins owned fifty percent interest of Hall and Collins until the sale of the business to the Collins family. One letter of note, addressed to Mrs. Mary Collins from Mr. E. W. Hall, indicates the sale of the Hall and Collins burial company in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Additional correspondence centers on the highly anticipated and publicized fiftieth anniversary celebration for Collins Funeral Home and solicitation for advertisements for the company’s souvenir programs. From that solicitation, much of the correspondence comes from clients expressing their gratitude for the services that the staff and director of the funeral home rendered.

Financial and general business records provide insight into how the Collins family conducted the funeral home and insurance business. Clarie Collins Harvey, an astute businesswoman, instilled professionalism within her staff and held regular professional development programs to facilitate their growth. She also recognized the importance of advertising and public relations to her company’s success and donated hand fans (church fans) with the Collins logo, often accompanied by religious images or scripture, to Jackson-area churches for their services.

The funeral home’s newsletter, The Producer, dating from 1958 to 1985, served two purposes: to publish news celebrating agents and staff in business accomplishments and personal milestones and to instruct staff regarding sales promotions. The Producer was published on a quarterly basis.

Among the collected ephemera are newspaper clippings that date from May 1939 with page-length pieces devoted to the funeral home. Also included are printed ephemera that the funeral home collected from affiliated organizations, businesses, and civil rights organizations.

Of note are images of the funeral service of Medgar Evers, civil rights activist and field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who Byron De La Beckwith murdered in 1963. The Collins Funeral Home serviced Evers’s funeral that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders attended. Images from this event include that of the Evers family along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., representatives from the National Council of Churches, and Life photographer Flip Schulke attending the viewing at Collins Memorial Chapel; the funeral service at the Masonic Temple, Jackson, Mississippi; the funeral procession of white Cadillac’s moving north on Farish Street to the Collins Funeral Home; the funeral marchers who disbanded at the Collins Funeral Home; and finally, the return to the home of Medgar Evers with the wooded area from which De La Beckwith stood as he fired off the shot that killed Evers in the background.

Also included is a small collection of photogravure on glass printing plates used for the various printed ephemera and newsletters of the funeral home. Two oversized boxes complete the collection that includes a scrapbook, a financial ledger, and publicity materials for the funeral home.