The History of Memorial Park Funeral Home & Cemetery

The history of Memorial Park is centered on a man and his dream. In August of 1924, E. Clovis Hinds purchased the first parcel of land which was Memphis Memorial Park Cemetery (later changed to Memorial Park, Inc and now known as Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery), 54 acres far out from the city limits, at the corner of Yates and Poplar Avenue. Engineer and landscape architects were employed to design and build a cemetery unique to this area. At that time there were no park-type cemeteries in the entire Mid-South and few in the nation. Mr. Hinds, at the age of 56 had become and innovator and pioneer in the cemetery business.

Originally from North Mississippi, Mr. Hinds had been a merchant cotton buyer and founder of Cotton States Life Insurance, which he moved from Tupelo to Memphis in 1916. Between 1916 and 1924, he traveled widely, particularly in the West, and met Hubert Eaton of renowned Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. When he had the opportunity to sell the insurance company in 1924, Mr. Hinds purchased the land for Memorial Park. From that time forward until his death in 1949, he devoted himself completely to the development of the park.

Memorial Park’s outstanding feature is its beauty and naturally rolling terrain, with points of interest planned and constructed primarily during the 1930s by Mr. Hinds. Arkansas field stone is the featured building materials throughout the Park. Just inside the entrance is a gracefully curved reflecting pool and three-tiered fountain. As the visitor follows the driveway to the east of the fountain, he crosses the stone bridges and sees the first of several fascinating constructions by Mexican Artist, Dionicio Rodriguez, (1891-1955). These works include Annie Laurie’s Wishing Chair and Rose Garden, The Wishing Well and the Fountain of Youth.


Annie Laurie’s Wishing Chair (far left)Wishing Well (left) The Fountain of Youth (Right)

Rodriguez was engaged by Mr. Hinds around 1935 to beautify the cemetery and to reproduce certain bits of history, primarily biblical. A “naturalistic artist”, Rodriguez used concrete to shape objects appearing to be boulders, cut stone blocks, wooden logs, a series of caves, and even a tree.



The tree, Abraham’s Oak, has a large opening large enough to walk through, with two benches hewn out of the center. The high point of Rodriguez’ work and the visitors experience is the Crystal Shrine Grotto, which Mr. Hinds called the only man-made crystal cave in the world.

To construct the Grotto, Rodriguez scooped out part of the hillside and made a cave of natural rock, quartz crystal and other semi-precious stones from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas and Missouri. Within the Grotto, ten scenes depict the life of Jesus Christ.

The Renaissance Style ceramic figures were imported from Italy by Mr. Hinds and Senor Rodriguez, who created the backgrounds. Other figures were sculptured by Memphian David Day which includes, “The Sermon on the Mount”, “The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter”, “Zaccheus Up a Tree”, “The Last Supper”, “The Resurrection” and the “Transfiguration”. Skylights introduce angled rays of sunlight that reflect incredible colors from stalactites and stalagmites. gled rays of sunlight that reflect incredible colors from stalactites and stalagmites. Also in the Grotto is a painting of The Good Samaritan by Mary Rembrandt and a plaque of “Christ and the Children” by Miriam Dalstrom.

Near the Grotto is a reproduction of the Cave of Machpelah, the tomb of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob. Nestled in the side of the hill, green slopes and outcropped stones make the cave an enchanting link between the past and present. In front of the Cave of Machpelah, the Pool of Hebron has been recreated. It is a representative of one of the many celebrated pools built by King Solomon to provide essential water to an otherwise arid land.



After Rodriguez’s work was completed in the late 1930s, Memorial Park became an outstanding area attraction, fulfilling the founder’s dream of a beautiful cemetery which would minister to the living in times of joy as well as sorrow. Since Mr. Hinds’ death in 1949, his family continued the business and the development which this genius created. For 20 years his daughter Bess Hinds Anderson (Mrs. George M. Anderson) served as president, and his son Stanley R. Hinds, who had remained in the family business in Tupelo, Mississippi, was Vice President. Both the late Mrs. Anderson and the late Mr. Stanley R. Hinds retired in 1970. The presidency was later assumed by E. Clovis Hinds’ granddaughter, Katherine Hinds Smythe.

Through the years additional land was purchased until the original 54 acres had become nearly 200. In spite of the loss of acreage to I-240 expressway and the TVA power lines, Memorial Park still has over 150 acres, including about 16 undeveloped acres. There have already been more than 68,000 burials here, with about 1,200 additional burials each year. The site of Memorial Park is now well within the city limits and is in the center of a major business and residential community.

In 1972, the decision was made to conserve land and to move into multiple burials in a 15 acre tract in the Southeast corner of the Park. After two years of planning and construction, the Memphis Memorial, a 3,000 crypt mausoleum of unique concept and design, was dedicated on October 6, 1974. The inspiration for the design of this building, according to Gene Strong, was the existing construction of the fountains, pools, bridges and caves which Mr. Hinds and Senor Rodriguez had planned in the 1930s. Once again, a hillside was excavated, the building set into it, and the entire roof covered, this time with sod and trees. The result is a beautiful curving entry wall of Arkansas fieldstone, with Carnelian Granite Crypt Fronts in the Entrance court. Exterior garden crypts bring the total number of spaces up to 11,000.

The mausoleum at Memorial Park was designed to blend with the surrounding environment representative of the thoughtful and careful planning that has marked the cemetery from the date of its founding. Appropriately, an artist known for his involvement with landscape was commissioned to create the tapestries that enhance the mausoleum. Henry Easterwood of Memphis College of Arts designed EARTH, AIR, FIRE and WATER, to cry out the theme of “creation” and to represent the four basic elements recognized by earliest civilizations. These tapestries seem to join the earth with the entire universe while identifying quotations from Genesis and Psalms to celebrate the grandeur of God’s creation.

In keeping with his plan to use as much natural material as possible, the architect chose untilled Italian Travertine and Carnelian Granite for the crypts fronts. In the central Rotunda, also used as a chapel, is dark stained solid oak paneling, finished like the finest furniture. Helvetica-style bronze lettering is used uniformly throughout the building. Since 1980, Memorial Park has been able to offer the public a complete range of services: traditional ground burial, mausoleum, lawn crypt burial, cremation, inurnment and a funeral home. We stress the idea of family protection through total prearrangement of all cemetery and funeral home services.

The Funeral Home opened in 1977, and like the mausoleum, was designed to blend with the surrounding environment of Memorial Park. It is made of Arkansas Fieldstone and adjoins the administration building at the front of Memorial Park.

Now Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery is home to a legendary icon which will never be forgotten, Isaac Hayes, Jr.

His illustrious career spanned the globe from music to fighting for civil rights and literacy programs for children.

Through his humanitarian efforts in Ghana, Africa; he was made a King in December 1992.

In 1993, Hayes started The Isaac Hayes Foundation, whose mission is to enable people around the world to become whole by promoting literacy, music education, and nutritional education.