Funeral home patriarch Duplain “Pete” Rhodes III dies

By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer

Duplain W. “Pete” Rhodes III, patriarch of New Orleans’ Rhodes Family of Business, passed away at the age of 61 on Thursday, September 23.

The D.W. Rhodes Funeral Home has been a family affair for well over a century, started as the Rhodes Undertaking Company by Duplain Rhodes Sr. at a time when there were almost no Black funeral homes in the area. In recent years, Pete Rhodes managed the Rhodes Limousine Service while his sisters managed the funeral home.

Pete was a graduate of St. Augustine High School and Wursham College of Mortuary Science in Chicago. He was a member of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club and a former member of the Young Men Illinois Club. He served on the Louisiana Judiciary Commission from 1997-2001.

Neither Rhodes’ cause of death nor information about funeral arrangements were available as of press time.

At the time of his death, Rhodes was serving as vice president for the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors. He had previously served as secretary and treasurer. Rodney McFarland Sr., president of the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers & Funeral Directors, posted a message on the board’s website.

“His knowledge and meticulous attention to detail during his attendance at every meeting of the board helped guide his fellow board members and colleagues to improve the quality of service in the funeral profession,” McFarland wrote.

Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and current New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell also paid their respects to Rhodes on social media.

“Pete was, as his father and grandfather before him, a dedicated and compassionate ‘last responder,’ providing the loving care and respect needed to help a family in the transition of a loved one to their final resting place,” Cantrell wrote. “Like his siblings, Pete never shied away from the family legacy, once saying with a grin, ‘We were told we had no choice.’ We pray for his own loving transition in the same way he helped so many others.”

The comments under Cantrell’s post on her Facebook page were full of people offering their condolences and saying how much Rhodes helped them during their times of grief and loss.

“I remember he helped me so so much with my father’s funeral 28 years ago. I didn’t have any knowledge of sending someone away,” Lenny Johnson wrote on Facebook.

“(Rhodes was) so very compassionate upon my mother’s sunset!” Ronalyn Johnson wrote on Facebook. “When I became overwhelmed, he bowed his head down. That simple gesture with his soft-spoken words I have never forgotten.”

This article originally published in the September 27, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.