Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 25, 1993 TAG: 9302250323
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
DIGGING UP THE PAST
WHEN J. Curtis Storey became general manager of John M. Oakey & Son in Salem last November, he immediately began exploring the funeral home's quaint, old Victorian building.The gleaming white structure at Salem's College Avenue and Boulevard is a Roanoke Valley landmark, and Storey wanted to know its history.
Storey, a history buff, is delighted with the mementoes he discovered in the funeral home attic: caskets, embalming tables, veils that covered caskets while a body was lying in state and many other out-of-date tools.
But one thing baffles Storey and his staff. It's a picture of a casket that has "Rest In Peace Hitler" in bold lettering. Four unidentified people and six other caskets leaning against a pedestal also are in the picture.
"I would like to know about this," said Storey, who is an antiques buff, too. He also would like to know where the casket is now.
Once he began pulling relics out of the attic, Storey thought they should be shared with others.
So, he is putting the relics on the Oakey's second floor, where they will be displayed in a history room.
Oakey's also will have a pictorial history of Salem in a hallway on the first floor of the funeral home.
Storey, who became interested in the mortuary business while serving as a hospital corpsman in the Navy, envisions the history room being used mostly by people who come to Oakey's at times of funerals.
"A lot of people are curious about this business and this house," he said. "After people have visited with a family, they often talk to our staff."
Now, said Storey, a 1978 Northside High School graduate, when anyone expresses an interest he can be invited to the second floor history room.
The history room is still a ways from being finished. Some relics are still in the attic, and everything on display must be labeled so it will have more meaning, he said.
The house, incidentally, was built in the 1880s as a private residence. It was badly damaged by fire in 1926 and was vacant until it was restored in the early 1930s and again used as a private residence.
Oakey's took over the house in 1936. In the 1960s, the funeral home added a wing on the College Avenue side. Along with development of the history room, Storey said Oakey's has undertaken some remodeling to enhance the homey atmosphere of the old house.
Some of the things found in the attic date back almost to 1866 when Oakey's was started.
The staff has found an embalming case that folds into a compact unit about the size of a small suitcase, an old glass embalming bottle and a foldaway table.
It was the practice in former times for bodies to lie in state in the home, Storey said. For that reason, embalming was done at the home, usually in the kitchen.
The bottle was used in homes that did not have electricity, Storey said. It was hung from the ceiling and the fluid ran by gravity down a tube into the body. In homes that had electricity, a small pump was used instead of the bottle.
The practice of embalming in homes lasted until the 1940s, said Storey, who attended mortuary school in Richmond before going to work for a Suffolk funeral home.
The history room also has an old wicker basket that Storey said was used before the day of the stretcher.
The staff also discovered a casket made of fine wood decorated with gold inlays and a silver identification plaque.
"It is the opinion of everybody here that this was a high quality casket," Storey said.
Also found were plaques with inscriptions such as "father," "brother" and "Our Little Darling" that were used to customize caskets.
A stamping device - an indication Storey said that the plaques were made at the funeral home - also was found in the attic
A glass-top embalming table that Storey said is very old also has been placed in the history room along with a device designed to show how a metal grave vault kept a casket dry.
The device consists of a miniature metal vault and a tank of water. The vault can be closed and lowered into the water. But when it is removed from the water the inside of the vault will be dry even though the bottom is open.
It works on air pressure that builds up inside the metal vault and prevents water from rising into it, Storey explained.
Storey, also has found a number of old record books and newspaper ads that reflect the state of the funeral business in times past.
One ledger shows that a complete funeral cost $76 in 1903, and most of that charge went for the casket, which cost $60.
The newspaper ads reflect a time when Oakey's, as well as all Roanoke Valley funeral homes, offered ambulance service.
Anyone with information on the picture should call Storey at 389-5441.