Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home - West End Chapel

The funeral home, with 15 permanent employees, is the oldest black-owned business in the West End, enjoying strong ties to the community. This location hosts the annual Memorial Day Praise in the Park, attracting approximately 3-thousand people who come to enjoy food, drinks, raffles and live entertainment. This is the highest grossing location, conducting more than 800 funerals annually. Among those memorialized from this location are dignitaries Coretta Scott King, Bishop Earl Paul, Honorable Billie McKinney, Senator Hilary Shumate, and Rev. Howard Creecy, Sr., to name a few. All of the innovative features that have become Willie Watkins signature services originated from this location, including horse drawn carriages, top hats and tails, doves, flower cars and silver and black hearses.