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The Gainsboro History Project

C.C. Williams Funeral Home

Serving Families in Need

The C.C. Williams Funeral Home opened in 1910 on the corner of Second Street and Gilmer Avenue, NW. It provided decades of service to families in Gainsboro. In the undertaking business, C.C. Williams was known as an honest man as he was reasonable and understanding, especially when the family of the deceased could not afford burial care for their departed. After C.C. Williams’s death in 1962, Elijah Williams took over the Williams Funeral Home.

C.C. Williams, Founder

Funeral home founder, Christopher “C.C.” Chamberlin Williams (1882-1962), was a graduate of the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) and completed training at the Massachusetts College of Embalming in June 1906.

In addition to working with families in their time of grief, Williams served as president of the Magic City Building and Loan Association for thirty years, president of the William Hunton Y.M.C.A. for twenty-five years, and was president of the Hunton Life Saving Crew from its inception in 1941 until his passing. The C.C. Williams Memorial Park cemetery, on Westside Boulevard, NW, Roanoke, is dedicated to his memory.

C.C. Williams. Courtesy of Roanoke Public Libraries.

See Also

  1. Old Lick Cemetery
  2. Businesses in Gainsboro
  3. Gainsboro Becomes Business and Cultural Center

Sources

Our beginnings | our story | serenity funeral home and cremation service of Roanoke. (n.d.). Serenity Funeral Home and Cremation Service. Retrieved, February 18, 2022 from https://www.serenityfuneralhome.net/page/596

Chubb-Hale, V. M. (1982). Outstanding Blacks in Roanoke Past and Present. Gainsboro Library Vertical Files, Roanoke, VA, United States.