Richardson Funeral Home, Inc. Amite and Nurturing Our Roots Preserving Funeral Programs

Proprietors of Richardson Funeral Home, Inc. Amite
Earl Scott Richardson, Sr. and Dr. Valarie Richardson
Photo Credit: Antoinette Harrell

Richardson Funeral Home, Inc. Amite donated the first collection of funeral programs to Nurturing Our Roots a year ago for preservation. An additional 634 funeral programs was added to the collection on February 8, 2022.  A total of over 1,200 programs was donated in total to the center. Proprietors Dr. Valarie Richardson, Earl Scott Richardson, Jr, and Alex Richardson, CEO help delivery the boxes of records to the center in honor of Black History Month. 

Along with the funeral programs, a volume of 14 hardback books was donated to the center. The volume range from 1970-2008. The following information can be found in the  volume of books: name of the deceased, race, date of entry, residence, funeral charged to, address, order given by, occupation, place of birth, date of death, name of father, mother's maiden name, mother's place of birth, the date of the funeral, service to be held at, clergyman, religion, cause of death, place of burial. This information can be very helpful to genealogists and family historians who are conducting genealogy research. 

Dr. Antoinette Harrell, curator of the collection developed a database for the collection that contains the surname, given name, date of birth, date of death, and place of burial of the deceased before donating the collection to the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies. 

Dr. Richardson and Earl had an opportunity to view the collection they donated last year. The owners were very please with the way the collection was preserved. They saw the box containing folders that was labeled by alphabetical order. Whenever I am asked to serve on a funeral service, the first thing I request is a funeral program, said Earl. According to Dr. Valarie Richardson, the project aims to give back to the community.

Funeral Books
Photo Credit: Paulette Sims