BY ELEANOR EVANS
THE DAILY NEWS
 FINAL MOMENTS n Ed Penton of Brown Funeral Home prepares to flip the switch that lowers caskets into their final resting place at Hillview Memorial Gardens in Bogalusa. Penton will retire this month as a gravedigger for Brown Funeral Home, where he has worked for 36 years. Advertisement |
Penton retires from Brown Funeral Home, where he's spent the past four decades as a gravedigger n a literally dying profession, as Penton's skilled hands have been replaced by the work of a machine.
Penton has spent the past few years working the machine, and said it's made his job a lot easier. "I wish I had the machine when I started," he said.
Penton began his career because he "wanted a job outside," he said. Although he'd never thought about being a gravedigger before, "after I got to doing it…I just liked it."
Over 8,000 graves have been dug by Penton's hands in Kentwood, Amite, Covington and Washington Parish n 3,000 of those in Bogalusa.
And in the past 36 years, he's been the part of the final journey for members and friends of many families in the area.
In addition to digging the graves, Penton has been there when the casket is finally lowered into the ground n often making him the last person involved in a funeral.
The best thing about the job was "the final acts…anything you could do for a person," Penton said. "I got enthused over it."
Although Penton's job may be one of the forgotten professions in the funeral industry, he's taken pride in all his work. "If you're nothing but a pine tree in the forest, you have to be the tallest tree," he said.
Penton said he has received many compliments for his work from friends and family of the deceased.
"I'm definitely going to miss making families happy," he said. "I'm the person that has the last thing to do with the deceased."
But Penton isn't fully retiring. He still remains the owner of Mr. Clean Janitorial Service, but he does intend to "just try to rest up from digging all these graves."
"I would like to continue, but the body's wearing down," Penton said. "I don't want to stick around and dig my own grave."
Comments