Josephine Pankey Burial Site
Introduction
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This gravestone marks the place where Josephine Pankey, along with her husband and two step-children were buried.
Backstory and Context
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Mrs. Pankey closed her real estate office in 1947 at the age of 78 and moved to the first community she established, Pankey. She rented a small house on Harris Street and lived there until her passing in 1954. She was 83. She was buried in Oakland-Fraternal Cemetery.
Mrs. Pankey, her husband Samuel, and two step-children Willie and Theo were buried in a method performed in cemeteries in Ohio, where she was born. Samuel was buried above Willie and Josephine was buried above Theo. Mrs. Pankey’s parents were buried in the same method.
Oakland-Fraternal Cemetery is one of seven distinct cemeteries that make up the Oakland & Fraternal Historic Cemetery Park. The Fraternal Cemetery is fourteen acres of Oakland and originally was established in 1893. African American fraternal orders petitioned the City of Little Rock for the land. It has a granite marker in it that reads, “Free American Citizens.” The cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
Sources
Lakresha Diaz, “Oakland-Fraternal Cemetery,” accessed November 27, 2019, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/oakland-fraternal-cemetery-7383/
Marion Fulk, “Josephine Irvin Harris Pankey,” accessed November 27, 2019, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/josephine-irvin-harris-pankey-9144/
Nancy Robinson Lott and Regina Norwood, Josephine: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Mrs. Josephine Pankey (Little Rock: Friends of Josephine Pankey, 2012)
Nancy Robinson Lott