The First "Real" Hearse, Corinthian Columns and "Polite" Design-
The Second Generation
By this time Ned and Mary's son Jeremiah Joseph, "Jerry" was married to Alice Cahill of New Orleans. Alice had learned the boarding house business from Mary before she had died. The businesses were booming and in 1892 the undertaking sideline paved the way for the O'Keefe Funeral Service..
Within three years, Jerry had purchased the first "real" hearse-- an elaborate carriage with rubber tires, ebony wood and plate glass. Alice continued to run the profitable boarding house until 1906 when the building was moved to Government Street to make way for construction of a large home.
With its Corinthian columns, wide galleries and Beaux Arts "polite" design, the house was destined to become the O'Keefe symbol of both prosperity and timeless commitment to the Coast. Jerry lived there only 5 years before his death in November, 1911, at the age of 52. Alice, like Mary before her, took charge of the family and ran the businesses with the help of her children until her death in 1921.
Politics, Sugar, and the End of an Era-
The Third Generation
A few years after the death of their father, Jerry, the children entered the business. Jeremiah Joseph II, nicknamed "Ben," assumed the reins of the family business while some of the other children pursued politics or studied and worked in sugar chemistry. The business continued to prosper and was now equipped with some of the finest motor vehicles of the time. 1915 witnessed the end of an era when Ben's last horse drawn hearse was smashed by a speeding train as it returned from a funeral. Luckily, the hearse driver escaped injury. After the accident, frightened horses were seen running through the town, still dragging the hearse's wooden tongue. Today, that tongue is on display at the livery stable in Ocean Springs.
Ben eventually bought out the remaining family members, and in 1923 he moved the funeral business to Biloxi. It was also in 1923 that Ben launched a burial insurance sideline.
Promises, Cut Glass Doors and Biloxi
Sadly, the family lost the beautiful Porter Street home during the Depression. The property took on a new look as the new owners turned it into a restaurant and gas station. On the day they moved out, young Jeremiah Joseph III and his sister vowed that one day they would return the home to the family. It seemed like an impossible dream, but years later that dream would become a reality. In the meantime, all the family could do was observe an admonition from Alice. The cut glass doors, which had been a wedding gift to Alice and Jerry, were removed and used as a grand entrance for O'Keefe's new funeral home in Biloxi.
During this time most bodies were prepared at the funeral home and taken across the street for services. But as times changed, a chapel was added to the funeral home for those who did not wish to use the church.
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