8-year-old Undertaker

It sounds like Duana Grant was a very practical-minded young girl. At the age of 8, instead of being squeamish about death, she was learning how to be a mortician, in preparation for taking over the family business at the appropriate time.

And it seems that her childhood ambitions became reality. When she was older she married Wilbur Elder and helped run the Grant Elder Funeral Home in Arkansas City.

In 1973, her son took over the business, and he ran it until it closed in August 1982.

Duana died in 2002, at the age of 79.

Green Bay Press-Gazette - Mar 12, 1931


She Is Learning To Be Undertaker
ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. — Death, abhorrent to most children, but to Duana Grant, 8, it awakens only sympathy and a desire to help. Born over an undertaker's parlor and associated with the business all her life, she is learning to conduct a funeral as well as any grownup. Outside business hours, Duana is just an ordinary child, with her school work, dolls, and roller skates.
     Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 04, 2016
     Category: Death | Jobs and Occupations | Children





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