Hawkins-Taylor funeral home, a staple in Lexington for decades
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Just last year a staple in the Lexington community celebrated 100 years of service.
The Hawkins-Taylor Funeral Home was first started in the 1920s by Reverend John Taylor’s grandfather, John T. Hawkins.
“He and my grandmother Miss Vinyl May Hawkins did great work in the community,” said Reverend Taylor.
Taylor says his grandfather started the business in Keene Kentucky after seeing a need for a funeral director in the black community.
His grandfather then moved the business to Lexington in 1926 to Patterson Street.
Ten years later, his grandfather built the first-ever funeral home building in the City on Pine Street. It had an office, a chapel, and an embalming room.
“In those times bodies were embalmed in the home and the services the visitation caskets everything was taken to the house and set up”
He says his grandfather began the trend in Lexington of having services away from the home, though it took everyone else in the community another 40 years to follow suit.
“I’m proud to say that he’s my granddaddy so it’s an awesome thought and awesome feet to have him build that building just for the black community to have a place large enough to come to mourn, grieve, their loved one is very forward-thinking,” said Reverend Taylor.
Reverend Taylor says the funeral home has another special piece to its story, record books that date back to 1921.
“A piece of history and family lineages that they go back for generations” added Reverend Taylor.
After the passing of John Hawkins in 1949, the legacy of the funeral home was handed down to his daughter and then to her son.
“I saw my first body at 5, I embalmed my first body by myself at 9, I conducted my first funeral by myself at 15,” said Reverend Taylor.
Reverend Taylor hopes to continue that legacy for many decades to come.
“Black history is very important for not just my generation, but for the generation coming behind me and even to my grandchildren” added Reverend Taylor.
