Anna Dunn never had a lot of spare time.
If she wasn’t running her flower business, A Boutique of Class Florist, she was likely going about her evening duties as the night caretaker at the Ralph David Abernathy Towers. And if she wasn’t doing either of those things, she could likely be found at the Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home in the West End, where she worked for 20 years.
“Willie was looking for a receptionist at the time,” said Darrell E. Watkins, brother of the funeral home’s namesake. “And she was over here a lot with the flowers and all, and she wanted to do it.”
Dunn started answering the phones for the car-service part of the business before taking calls for the funeral home. Health problems forced her into retirement three years ago, but if not for that she’d likely still be the first voice callers heard after dialing the West End location of the funeral home, he said.
Eliza Anna Bell Dunn, called Anna by family and friends, of Atlanta, died Thursday from complications of diabetes. She was 72. A funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Solomon Temple Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta. She will be buried at the New Spring Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, in her hometown of Philomath, in Oglethorpe County. Watkins, her former employer, is in charge of arrangements.
Dunn came to Atlanta from Philomath, approximately 45 minutes southeast of Athens, in the mid-’60s for work. She’d graduated from high school and gotten a job at a poultry factory, said her sister Melba Delaney of Atlanta. Dunn later worked at the A&P bakery and then the Scripto Pen Co.
“Seems like she did a little of everything,” Delaney said. “She even did income taxes and we did a little catering for a while.”
It was her work as a florist, in the ‘80s, that brought her to the attention of the Watkins funeral home. She would often deliver floral arrangements she’d made to the funeral home, Watkins said.
“She did funeral programs too,” Watkins said. “And she and my mother would get together and talk, especially when the family only had a few dollars. And Mama Dunn would do the flowers no matter what. And she’d do the flowers the same way, it didn’t matter if the family had $2,000 or $200.”
Dunn, who never married or had children of her own, had a willing spirit, not just for the families of the deceased but for the employees of the funeral home too, Watkins said.
“She was everybody’s Mama Dunn,” he said. “She took care of us all.”
“She was really like a missionary,” her sister said. “Anything she could do for others, she would do.”
In addition to her sister, Dunn is survived by two brothers, James S. Dunn of Atlanta and John W. Dunn of Stone Mountain; and sisters Sarah Pinkney of Fayetteville, Marioline Turner of Atlanta, and Helen Johnson of Decatur.
About the Author
