Margaret Dupree, longtime funeral director and teacher’s aide, has died at 104
She and her husband, Troy, established the Dupree Funeral Home in 1955, and she became sole owner and president when he died in 1987.
Margaret Dupree, 104, of Philadelphia, cofounder, director, and president of Dupree Funeral Home Inc. at 28th and Diamond Streets in North Philadelphia, former teacher’s aide for the School District of Philadelphia, beautician, and mentor, died Monday, Dec. 15, of age-associated decline at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Mrs. Dupree and her husband, Troy, established the Dupree Funeral Home in 1955, and she became sole owner and president when he died in 1987. Her son Kenneth joined her as supervisor, and together, for nearly 40 years, they conducted thousands of funerals and oversaw a building expansion in 2000 and renovation in 2003.
Most often, Mrs. Dupree supervised the books and answered the office telephone. Her son handles the funeral arrangements. “She was very meticulous and organized,” her son said. “She continued our legacy and served with integrity.”
In the 1960s and ‘70s, Mrs. Dupree told The Inquirer in 1999, funerals were held at night because most people worked during the day. So she and her husband had day jobs, too. She was a reading and math aide at William Dick and Richard R. Wright Elementary Schools. He worked for the telephone company.
She earned a beautician’s license after graduating from Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1941 and worked at her mother’s beauty shop at 13th Street and Susquehanna Avenue for a while. She became licensed as a funeral director in 1949 and met her husband when they were interns at a funeral home in South Philadelphia.
“Her lifelong commitment to funeral service stands as a rare and remarkable testament to dedication, professionalism, and service to families during their most sacred moments,” her family said in a tribute.
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Mrs. Dupree was among the oldest licensed funeral directors in the country, her family said, and she told The Inquirer she went into the business because morticians and barbers were so respected when she was a child. “They were the people who were looked up to,” she said.
She used her makeup and beauty expertise to augment the cosmetic work on bodies in the mortuaries and said in 1995: “In the early stages, I liked doing reconstructive work. I relished doing the ‘invisible stitch.’”
Her family called her career “a powerful symbol of her lifelong devotion to the calling of funeral service” and praised her “mentoring others, serving families with dignity, and remaining deeply connected to the profession she loved.”
She was a charter member of Child’s Memorial Baptist Church, known now as Keeping It Real Christian Fellowship, and supported affordable housing initiatives in North Philadelphia. “I like for women to have a place to raise their children,” she told The Inquirer in 1998 regarding a proposed housing renewal project. “If you give people a place to work and take care of their children, then the whole neighborhood will be improved.”
Friends and former colleagues called her “funny and sweet” and a “history maker” in online tributes. One friend said she was “a woman of grace, and her radiant smile always was contagious.” Another said: “She has had a positive impact on so many Philadelphians.”
Margaret Alma McKenney was born July 8, 1921, in Belvedere, S.C. She relocated with her family to North Philadelphia when she was 5 and grew up at 13th and Diamond Streets.
During World War II, she worked for the Army Signal Corps and at the Frankford Arsenal. Afterward, she earned her funeral director’s license at the old Eckels College of Mortuary Science in Philadelphia.
She married Troy Dupree in 1951, and they had daughters Melanie and Carrie, and sons Troy Jr. and Kenneth. For years, she reared the children, worked at the funeral home, and helped out at her mother’s shop.
Later, she doted on her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a friend said online: “I am a better grandma having watched from one of the best to ever do it.”
Mrs. Dupree enjoyed knitting sweaters for her children, solving cryptograms in the newspaper, and traveling with family and friends to Bermuda, Africa, and elsewhere. She always, even at restaurants, her son Kenneth said, ate her dessert first.
“She had a multifaceted personality,” her son Kenneth said. “She was a comedian, an organizer, and a fan of the underdog.”
Her family said: “Margaret lived a life rooted in service, compassion, and purpose. Funeral service and education were never just her profession. It was her calling.”
In addition to her children, Mrs. Dupree is survived by six grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and other relatives. Two sisters and five brothers died earlier.
Services were held on Dec. 28 and 29.
Donations in her name may be made to Project Home, Development Dept., 1515 Fairmount Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19130.