During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Fordyce was like a lot of other cities in Arkansas. It suffered financial setbacks and tried valiantly to keep its down-south heritage intact. Lumber production was cut back at the local sawmill, the Kilgore Hotel sat empty after a fire in 1928, and a couple of banks were closed.
Among a few of the 3,000 citizens, Paul “Bear” Bryant was attending Fordyce High School and playing football for the Red Bugs. A loaf of bread cost a nickel at the Collin & Hampton Grocery Store, Clayton Prince was pastor over at the local Baptist Church, and Carlton Mays was undertaker at the Benton Mortuary.
Due to economic conditions, Mr. Mays and several other businessmen put their heads together and founded the Fordyce Burial Association around 1934. It was a non-profit organization that provided low-cost burials to members who paid membership fees. According to the By-Laws and Regulations, “a person must be in good health and free from any chronic disease to be eligible for membership, and must be from under any doctor’s care”. Maximum benefits were $300 towards a burial (maybe that’s all they cost back then?) and payments ranged from 10c for an infant to $1.50 for anyone aged 61 to 70 years.
There were a bunch of other interesting bylaws, including “the service and casket furnished by the said Fordyce Burial Association shall be up to the standard of, and in keeping with the services and caskets sold by licensed embalmers and funeral directors of this and other towns in this territory”.
Apparently there was a “State of Arkansas regulatory body” that the Secretary was instructed to pay, but there is no indication of any particular agency in Bylaw #9(b). A few paragraphs later, however, the Secretary-Treasurer was empowered to execute documents, papers or instruments to be filed with the State Regulatory body, and such documents would be “forever binding” upon the association when signed by the officer. Maybe it was the Department of Health where they sent death certificates.
Bylaw #14 states that the Funeral Director was to “deliver the casket within the distance of 30 miles of Fordyce without extra charge, roads permitting the use of the hearse”. If the distance was more than that, there would be an extra charge.
Certificate No. 3035 of this Association was issued in September of 1936 and signed by Carlton Mays and Mae Oakmail, who was most likely a clerk. It listed eight members of a single family, for a grand total of $1.70 in assessments. In exchange, they received a total of $680 towards their respective funerals.
After the Depression, the Association was disbanded, but these old certificates are still honored by funeral directors in Fordyce, Arkansas.
(c) 2013 Marie Brannon
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