Beauty Softens Grief

Isaiah Owens and his Funeral Home business at West 120th St. Harlem

At the Owens Funeral Home on Malcolm X. Blvd and West 120th St. in Harlem, a dedicated professional will restore the deceased to a marvelous condition. Mr. Isaiah Owens has adopted the motto "where beauty softens your grief" as the way to highlight his art of making the custom of open caskets not only bearable but uplifting. In a documentary film about him, he said "If you gotta die, it's me you want to bury you... I'm the guy who puts a smile on your face. Other places, you just look dead." (Christine Turner "Homegoings" 2013).

For funerals, Mr. Owens often wears a top hat and tails to match the high style and seriousness of the farewells he stages. Casket deliveries arrive every day, and Owens directs over 300 funerals a year at the business he founded more than 40 years ago. His send-offs for such beloved figures as the National Black Theatre founder Dr. Barbara Ann Teer have become famous as elaborate community participatory rituals.

Owens Funeral Home surrounded by local churches

To manage his business amidst the traffic on the Avenue, he has to pull up his hearse on the sidewalk of the wide Boulevard. His workers have to maneuver down the steps to the lower level of the brownstone. This whole section of Malcolm X Boulevard is landmarked, and the facade of his business is well-maintained in the style of the early 20th century row-houses that lined the prosperous street.

Grand Passage in Harlem

Grand Passage in Harlem

Going out in style: the funeral procession of Dr. Barbara Ann Teer on July 28, 2008

Crowds, Mourners, Drummers and Dancers at 125th St. Procession for Dr. Barbara Ann Teer
Photo: Courtesy Harlem One Stop

Dr. Barbara Ann Teer founded the National Black Theatre in 1968 and nurtured a generation of playwrights, directors and actors. Such notables as Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez and Maya Angelou have appeared on its stage. A solemn procession drummed its way from the National Black Theatre’s home on Fifth Ave. along 125^th Street to the Riverside Church which could not even hold the crowd. A release of doves, music by Roberta Flack, tributes from black statesmen, theatre royalty and pioneers of the Black Arts Movement, and a grand finale of fireworks from a barge in the Hudson River after dinner.

Owens Funeral Home supplied a horse-drawn caisson which followed the forty African drummers. Mr. Isaiah Owens is the sort of person to appreciate the need for elaborate staging: indeed, he is a funeral director, akin to a stage director. 

Procession planned by Owens Funeral Home
Photo: Courtesy Harlem One Stop

Every detail was planned in grand style: the flowers atop the caisson, doves ready to fly when the crowd reached the peak, permits in place to close down traffic on the commercial corridor of 125th St.

Harlem knew how to send off its beloved figures in style in the Jazz Age, and the tradition continues in the hands of local funeral directors. Like Mr. Owens, they attract big crowds to rites of passage that fit neighborhood tastes for fancy dress and fully orchestrated spectacles.

                                                --Kathleen Hulser

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