On a Friday afternoon, Austin Layne had five funeral services to attend, all split between the three mortuaries he owns. And all of them were at 11 a.m.
“I was able to get to three of them,” Layne said. “But I can’t assume the bad word that’s used in some industries: ‘busy.’”
“If I catch someone using it around here, they have a problem with me,” he said.
His employees simply tell his families: He’s working with another family. But, if you need him, he’ll be right with you.
“The word ‘busy,’ I don’t like that one,” Layne said.
This year, Layne celebrates his 30th year of serving families in St. Louis. He established his first business, Austin A. Layne Mortuary, in 1979. Then in 2004, he opened Layne Renaissance Chapel, which seats 250 people.
And finally, last July, he bought the building for the Austin Layne Normandy Chapel, 7733 Natural Bridge Rd. This is the location for the open house on Sunday, November 22, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
On Saturday, November 21 at 7 p.m., Layne will host a gala event, celebrating his 30 years in business with a concert – “Evening with Austin Layne and Friends” – at the Bethesda Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith, 5401 Bishop J. A. Johnson Lane. Layne also is a singer.
Layne said his businesses have always been independently owned and operated, despite rumors that he was offered a contract by a conglomerate company.
“When the conglomerate did come in, they bought the Caucasian funeral homes. They never did offer me a contract,” he said.
Layne has been a licensed funeral director for more than 38 years. It all started when a good family friend, Gilbert Wade Granberry, offered him a position working at his mortuary. After Layne graduated from Vashon High School, he went into the U.S. Army and became a computer specialist.
Even though he had a comfortable job with the government, he greatly admired Granberry. So Layne entered St. Louis Community College at Forest Park’s School of Mortuary Science. He soon realized he couldn’t do it all, so he quit his government job and focused on his studies and mortuary work.
Granberry was a gentleman, he said.
“He would tell me, ‘When you’re on a funeral, your mind is not on anything else but funerals,’” Layne said.
Layne remembers the first funeral he went to with Granberry. It was actually the service for a dentist named Dr. Layne (no relation). Granberry told him just to watch.
“I watched him, and I learned,” Layne said, “but I was scared to death.”
Granberry would not wave his arms or point his fingers. He would nod with his head or give direction with his eyes. They would call this “cool,” Layne said with a deep laugh.
“He taught me one thing: Every family’s needs are different,” Layne said. “Some of them like to talk. Some of them don’t want to talk, they’re all business. Some of them like to talk and do business. The main thing is to make the families relax a little bit.”
But nobody handles death the same way. There may be five family members at a funeral, he said, and each one is handling the loved one’s death differently.
“You can’t give everybody the same thing,” he said. “You have to do your job; you have to make it easy for them.”
Mortuary arts
Of course, being supportive and gentle is important. But equally, Layne’s line of work requires being artistic and innovative.
“It has to be in your hands and in your eyes for color,” he said. “When I have very difficult cases to this day, I ask the Lord to help me, to guide me so I can get this done.”
And there are skills that just come from experience, not from the standard restorative book. That also applies to helping the families make funeral arrangements.
“I try to put myself on the other side of the desk,” he said. “I try to feel what they’re feeling. And they don’t always know what they want to do. The first time you do it is one time too many, to make a funeral arrangement.”
For people who know Layne, they know he says this one phrase quite a bit: “Yes, Lord.”
That’s a phrase he learned from Granberry. When working with Granberry, Layne remembers a woman coming in to make an arrangement for her husband. She had a problem. She wanted a certain casket, but she couldn’t afford it.
Granberry was very sensitive, Layne said.
“He said, ‘Yeah baby, what is it that you want?’” he said. Then he told Layne to help her reach it.
“I knew what to do because he trained me. She paid, but she didn’t pay what was there. He made it happen. You can’t just sit there and say, ‘Well, that’s what it costs and I’m sorry.’”
“No, it doesn’t work like that,” Layne said.
Although he is currently not at the financial level that Granberry was, Layne always tries. You have to try, he said, for the community.
When he was 18, Layne sold life insurance, and he saw how African Americans were treated differently.
“They wouldn’t sell us what they called ‘normal’ insurance, because they said life expectancy for our people was not good, for some dumb reason,” Layne said.
“We didn’t live long enough. They sold us, ‘No more than $1,000.’ If you had a $5,000 policy, you were big time.”
One thing Granberry did was he would make sure the family didn’t overspend the whole $5,000. He made sure they took $1,000 home after he was paid. Layne watched all that, he said.
Between his mentor and father, who was a minister, Layne has always believed that his work is his ministry.
“Some people think this is a morbid business. This is not a morbid business,” he said. “It’s a very unique industry because we do help a lot of people.”
He said, “The life of this business is repeat business.” His philosophy is clear: If he treats the families fairly and makes the remains look humane and close to life appearance, they will tell somebody else.
“That has worked for me,” he said. “A lot of people have helped me get where I am today. I could call a lot of names.”
His business started out with basically nothing. In the beginning, a lot of people answered the phone for him at night because he couldn’t afford a secretary.
“I don’t believe in recordings,” he said. “You should not speak to a recording when your mother expires or husband expires. You should speak to a person.”
Now families have been coming to Austin Layne for several generations, and he treats them like family.
“My family, and many members of the Harris-Stowe State University family, have entrusted Austin with what many find to be a very difficult time in their lives,” said Henry Givens Jr., president of Harris-Stowe State University.
“It goes without saying that Austin is a great man and a real friend to many.”
