HISTORY

On January 20, 1909, the Commercial Appeal announced that real estate developers D. S. Rice, J. H. Scaife, F. D. Stockton, A. N. McCollum, and A. Dockery, Jr. applied for a charter to establish the Hollywood Cemetery Company to develop what they boasted would be “among the prettiest negro cemeteries in the state.” In March 1909, the north 20 acres of the Margaret J. Hinson property in the Nineteenth civil district were transferred from McCollum to the Hollywood Cemetery Company.

The histories of Hollywood Cemetery and Mount Carmel Cemetery, which lies directly southeast of Hollywood and was also incorporated in 1909, are entwined, but details are unclear. Burials began in Mount Carmel a few months after incorporation, but the first newspaper obituary listing Hollywood Cemetery did not appear until 26 Jul 1945. There are obituaries and death certificates that list “Mount Carmel Annex” as the place of burial, but the markers are in Hollywood Cemetery. Both cemeteries were eventually owned and managed by the Fields family.

Eventually the cemetery fell into disrepair. The final owners were Calvin and Carolyn Fields Hayes. After legal action was brought in 2002, the cemetery’s trust fund was sealed. The state filed a certificate of administrative dissolution for Hollywood Cemetery Company in 2005, and the couple relinquished ownership on 1 Jul 2013. This left the cemetery in a state of legal limbo where the company is still responsible for upkeep of the property, but there is no longer anyone associated with the company.

The burial records of both Hollywood and Mount Carmel Cemeteries are lost, so the exact number of interments is unknown. Between the two properties, over 7,000 burials have been documented so far through obituaries, death certificates, funeral home records, and grave markers. Notable Memphians buried in Hollywood include Blues musicians Walter “Furry” Lewis and Frank Stokes, restaurateurs Hattie and Walter Culpepper, photographer Henry A. Hooks, Sr., and participants of the 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike such as Elester Gregory and Rev. Ledger Martin.