Interviewee

Irving Sanchez III

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Interviewer

Julie Buckner Armstrong

Publication Date

Summer 7-12-2021

Date

2021-05-05

Abstract

Mr. Sanchez owns Sanchez Rehobeth Funeral Home and Cremation Services. He was born and raised in St. Petersburg, and his family has been in the funeral home industry for many decades. His aunt (Jessie Marie Calhoun) purchased the Williams Funeral Home (9th Ave and 22nd Street South), and his father (Irving Sanchez Jr.) took it over from her in the 1950s to become Sanchez Arch Royal Funeral Home – later Sanchez and Son. The elder Sanchez was highly respected in the local area for his facial reconstruction skills. The younger Sanchez spent time as a child with the Calhouns in the Gas Plant area, near the cemetery complex. Although he has little knowledge of that complex, he does have memories of the local area, which the interview covers. He was a member of McCabe Methodist Church, relocated when the interstate went in. More specifically, the interview covers local and African American burial practices such as funeral rituals, casket descriptions, and the appearance of the deceased in their caskets. Sanchez also discussed his thoughts on the afterlife, historical memory, and appropriate ways of memorializing burial sites.

Keywords

African American Burial Ground Project (AABGP), African American Burial Grounds Oral History Project, Oaklawn cemetery, Evergreen cemetery, Lincoln cemetery, Reinterment, Reburial

Extent

00:46:24; 16 page transcript

Language

English

Media Type

Oral histories

Format

Digital Only

Identifier

A67-00004

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Rights Statement

In Copyright