Biography of Alfred Luther Hawkins - Mercer Co. WV

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
Pg. 408 

ALFRED LUTHER HAWKINS is proprietor of the Hawkins Undertaking Company of Bluefield.  He has 
been a Bluefield business man twenty years, at first as a general merchant.  He is a graduate 
and licensed embalmer, and has perfected a highly adequate and efficient service in his 
profession and business.

Mr. Hawkins was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, November 6, 1875, son of Thomas B. and Betty M. 
(Hatcher) Hawkins.  His father, a native of Bedford County, Virginia, was a representative of 
an old family in that section of the state, and grew up on a farm, his people having been 
planters and farmers for several generations.  He entered the Confederate Army when a young 
man, in Stonewall Jackson's Brigade, and was with that great leader when he fell at the battle 
of Chancellorsville.  Later in the same year Thomas B. Hawkins was wounded at Gettysburg, and 
after being wounded served as an officer in the Home Guard.  Following the war he became a 
prominent tobacco exporter, with headquarters at Lynchburg, and maintained offices both in 
England and Italy.  He was active in that business until he retired, and in 1902 removed with 
his family to Bluefield, where he lived until his death in 1917, at the age of sixty-nine. The 
mother died in 1915, aged sixty-two.  They were members of the Baptist Church, and the father 
was a democrat in politics.  Of their fourteen children six are still living, Alfred L. being 
the youngest.

Alfred L. Hawkins acquired his early education in Lynchburg and in Bedford County, Virginia, 
and for two years was employed as salesman by a Lynchburg concern.  He was also a salesman at 
Farmsville, Virginia, and on moving to Bluefield became associated with his brother, S. C. 
Hawkins, in a mercantile business on North Mercer Street.  Two years later Mr. A. L. Hawkins 
entered the Pittsburgh College of Embalming, and after completing his technical training 
established his undertaking parlors at 84 Bland Street and from there moved to Pulaski Street 
and finally to his present location at 72 Bland Street.  Here he has a funeral chapel and 
morgue, and has complete equipment of automobile hearses and other facilities for expert  
service.

May 30, 1920, at Princeton, West Virginia, Mr. Hawkins married Miss Lola Browning, of Logan 
County.  They have one daughter, Betty.  Mr. Hawkins is a member of the Elks, Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, the Kiwanis Club and is an independent democrat in 
politics.


Submitted by Linda Katalenich <KatalenL@stratcom.mil>

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