D.W. Rhodes Funeral Home celebrates its 140th year
10th February 2025 · 0 Comments
By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer
New Orleans’ first Black-owned funeral home, Rhodes United Fidelity Funeral Home, celebrated its 140th anniversary in September 2024.
Duplain W. Rhodes Sr. opened the first Rhodes Funeral Home on Valence Street in Uptown New Orleans to meet a need for the city’s Black community in the years following the Civil War. Without a funeral home in the area willing to cater to the community, the bodies of many Black people were prepared for burial in stables.
On the Rhodes website, Duplain W. Rhodes Jr. is quoted as saying his father became one of the first Black men in the city to own an automobile in 1917 when he recognized how an automobile might be beneficial to his business, which up to that point had been using a horse and buggy.
As the 20th century progressed, Rhodes expanded. The business moved from Valence Street to Claiborne Avenue and would move a few more times on South and North Claiborne streets until they moved to their current Claiborne location. The family-run business also remodeled the old Tivoli Theater on Washington Avenue and opened a location on Virgil St. in Gretna before acquiring a funeral home in Baton Rouge and opening another branch on Chef Menteur Highway in New Orleans East.
It was Duplain W. Rhodes Jr., who broke tradition in the funeral home industry by switching from the traditional black limousines to white ones. The switch allowed the company to use their limos for weddings as well as funerals. Civically, Rhodes Jr. also actively contributed to social justice causes providing financial resources to Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Panthers and the NAACP among others.
By the time Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath left New Orleans devastated, the third generation of the D.W. Rhodes’ family had taken over the reins of the family business. Sandra Rhodes Duncan, Joan Rhodes Brown, Stephanie Rhodes Navarre, Kathleen Rhodes Astorga and Duplain W. Rhodes III, like the majority of New Orleanians, faced and managed the challenges of the time. With all of their funeral home locations damaged, they continued to operate while rebuilding, renovating and repurposing their locations. Their Tivoli Theater location was hit particularly hard but in 2009, the Rhodes family reopened the building as the Rhodes Pavilion.
The facility now hosts funerals, christenings, weddings, receptions and meetings.
When asked about how her family company has endured for so long, Kathy Astorga, board member and granddaughter of Duplain W. Rhodes Sr., pointed to values like hard work, honesty and nurturing strong relationships with the human beings they serve.
“We never forget that our business is reliant on the community,” Astorga said.
Astorga said the leadership within her family has steered the company through changes in the industry, such as the invention of the automobile and the shift from newspaper obituaries to online obituaries.
“How do you find a good leader? You grow them,” Astorga said.
The work poses its challenges. Every day, the staff must work with and comfort people who are in tremendous pain. If a death is from homicide or suicide, the emotions can be even more complicated. Astorga said the company emphasizes self-care for its employees. Whether that care is exercise, yoga, or counseling, she said it is important to take it.
The Rhodes team focuses on caring and being present for their customers as well. Individual families may differ greatly on what kind of ceremony they want, whether it’s a second line, a jazz funeral, or a quieter private affair. Asking pertinent, open-ended questions is important. She said the Black community tends to value a lot of ceremony, but like any community, it features different people with different tastes.
Astorga has worked with her family’s company for forty years. She said when her generation is ready to retire, the next generation of the Rhodes clan is ready to step up. Members of the next generation already heavily involved in the business include Orrin Duncan, Sabrina Duncan Rose, Jasminne Navarre and Willie Navarre.
“I am proud to be part of a company that has thrived over time,” Astorga said. “It’s a great family business.”
This article originally published in the February 10, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
