Black History Month: 2 Detroit funeral homes find ways to support each other

When Detroiters think of Black-owned funeral homes, these specific last names come to mind: Swanson, Hutchison, Cole, Pye, Clora, Thompson, Barksdale, Ellis, Stinson, Jeter.

During Black History Month, the Free Press spent a couple of hours with the owners of Hutchison Funeral Home and O.H. Pye III Funeral Home. The funeral homes opened a year apart from each other, in 1979 and 1980. 

There are living spaces above both funeral homes. In Hutchison Funeral Home, it’s where Joseph Hutchison Sr., president of the funeral home, lives now and raised one of his children, Jaimie Hutchison, who is a funeral director. And in O.H. Pye III Funeral Home, the upstairs living space is where Ozie Pye IV grew up, and it is now where he and his wife, Arnessa Pye, have their offices. 

Although they are two generations apart, both men attended Wayne State University for mortuary school where Hutchison Sr. was the only person of color in his class and Pye IV was the only Black man in his class. 

It’s a tight-knit profession, and somewhat competitive in nature. Even so, the men are open to helping each other and sometimes recommend each other to those needing funeral services.

"We support each other when we can," Pye IV said. “For instance, when my mother passed away, just about all the funeral homes in the city lined up just to offer support.” 

Hutchison’s president is 91

Joseph Hutchison Sr. was on the path to becoming a mechanic. But he decided that he wanted to work for himself.

The 91-year-old is founder and manager of Hutchison Funeral Home, at 6051 E. Seven Mile Road. His son, Joseph Hutchison Jr., is vice president of operations. Another son, Jaimie Hutchison, is funeral director. Hutchison Sr. remains the eldest practicing mortician in Michigan. 

Hutchison Sr. was in Northwestern University's class of 1950, and also served in the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C., where he met his late wife, Jackie Hutchison. He started his own contracting company as a painter for commercial businesses. But after revisiting his early dream of owning a funeral home, he went to mortuary school at Wayne State University and graduated in 1976. The funeral home opened three years later.

Hutchison Jr. graduated from Cass Tech High School in 1979, and although he was looking into aviation as a career, his mom suggested he and his sister go to mortuary school at the University of the District of Columbia. His sister stayed in D.C., and Hutchison Jr. returned home to help run the business. 

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“My late wife and I — all the time that we were dating, she knew that I was going to be a funeral director and she helped me,” Hutchison Sr. said. “My youngest son was born since we've lived in this building.” 

Jaimie Hutchison, the youngest son, spent his life watching the funeral home grow.

“I was born and raised here,” said Jaimie Hutchison, 42, of Detroit. “So early on, I saw every day, every Saturday morning, waking up with music playing, the sound of the door opening and closing. So from an early age, I knew what I was going to be doing.”

Hutchison Sr. said funerals cost around $900 when he started his business, and they can now cost up to $12,000 — if nothing lavish is required.

Today, the funeral home can host as many as four services a day in its primary location and a nearby chapel.

Hutchison Jr. said the funeral home is involved in the community. Sometimes, they assist families that have experienced tragedy. One of his community connections came through a fraternity that he belongs to, the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. It is one of the nine historically Black fraternities and sororities known as the National Pan-Hellenic Council.

“It takes 25 years before you really get accepted by the community,” said Hutchison Jr., 61, of North Farmington Hills. “Because you have to get your name out there and you have to build your trust level up. It's not like opening up a candy store and the kids are out front with their money ready to give it to you. A lot of this is built on trust.” 

The family wants to open a second location, which Jaimie Hutchison will operate. And then another for the next generation — two of Jaimie Hutchison’s children, who are 8 and 11, are interested in the family business.

“I think that'd be part of my legacy,” Hutchison Jr. said. “I want to see that happen.”

At Pye, husbands and wives run the business

O.H. Pye III Funeral Home started in 1980 by Ozie Pye III and his wife, Brenda J. Pye. They were both in their 20s and got licensed to be funeral directors.

“At that time, my wife and I had both experienced close relatives in our family passing, so we know the hurt and pain it was,” said Pye III. “And that just was our goal — try to alleviate some of that off the families during their time of need.”

At a young 4 years old, his son, Ozie Pye IV, remembers moving into the house upstairs and waking up the next morning to find the business bustling. People were moving furniture and setting up the place. 

Now, Pye IV is the executive director and owner, and his wife, Arnessa Pye, is the financial director. The husband-and-wife duo met at a funeral that was held at Pye in the summer of 2004. They got married in late 2004, and soon, Arnessa Pye also found herself involved in the family business. They are members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

The funeral home has a team of about 70 people including vendors, and they typically handle over 1,300 deaths a year and can host up to nine services a day.

Although it can be a difficult discussion to have, Pye IV said pre-need services can be helpful to families.  

“A lot of people do want to prearrange their services just to make sure they’ve got everything all together and they don’t have to have a burden for their family,” he said. He also said that those who prearrange services are paying today’s prices for something that may happen, and cost more, at a later date. 

Pye IV serves as the board of directors’ District One director for the Michigan Funeral Directors Association, which is an organization that supports funeral homes and directors. Sometimes, he has been involved in drafting policies that represent funeral directors in the state of Michigan. 

The funeral home also plans to support the community through its nonprofit, Pye Family Services, which helps families with funding for services in cases of a tragedies. And to honor his mother, Pye IV plans to dedicate some of the organization's revenue toward funding cancer research through the Brenda Joyce Pye Pancreatic Cancer Memorial. 

“December of 2019, we started it and then we had the anticipation to launch it in 2020 — and then COVID,” Arnessa Pye said. “Everything fell to the wayside. “So I feel like now that things are getting back to normal and now living with COVID is now our new normal, now we can finally get back into putting Pye Family Services out there and trying to help our families out.”