It was an interesting turn of events that brought Aubrey Lewis into the funeral business. One Friday night in the early '60s, while playing high school football at Jonesboro High School, a young Aubrey Lewis broke a bone in his arm.
Pope Dixon, a funeral director in Jonesboro, was running the ambulance that night and attended to the injured player, said Jimmie Lewis, a son, who lives in Suwanee.
“Mr. Dixon looked at dad and said, ‘Well son, it looks like your season is over, do you want a job?’” Mr. Lewis said. “And that’s when dad started working in the funeral business.”
Mr. Lewis went on to eventually own Donehoo-Lewis Funeral Home in Hapeville, where he was the funeral director until he retired approximately five years ago. He retained ownership of the funeral home, but turned the duty of director over to his stepdaughter Debbie Baughman, of Locust Grove.
“You know how there are people who work in certain jobs and just fit in? That was him,” she said of Mr. Lewis. “He seemed to enjoy it all, especially helping the families who came to us. And he made everyone we served feel like a family member, not the next in line.”
Jeff Aubrey Lewis Jr., known as Aubrey by most, of Demorest, died Friday after a recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. He was 67.
A funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at Grace United Methodist Church, Atlanta. A private Masonic graveside service and burial will be held at a later date. His funeral home, Donehoo-Lewis, is in charge of arrangements.
In 1978, Mr. Lewis purchased the Paul T. Donehoo Funeral Home, where he’d worked for a number of years. In the nearly two decades since his chance meeting with Mr. Dixon, Aubrey Lewis had become a licensed funeral director and embalmer and was dedicated to the business, said Jimmie Lewis, who is also in the industry.
“He really enjoyed helping people through their trying times,” Mr. Lewis said of his father.
Aubrey Lewis was not only good at helping the bereaved, he also was a good teacher for those interested in the business, his employees said.
“The thing about it was, you didn’t work for him, you worked with him,” said Jeff Colquitt, the funeral home’s general manager.
Mrs. Baughman said Mr. Lewis also enjoyed working with the mortuary school students who would come through.
“And he was a wonderful teacher to me, guiding me along and reminding me of what I should do, instead of telling me I did this or that wrong,” she said. “When you did your job well, he let you know, he built up your confidence, which only makes you do your job better.”
Though Mr. Lewis retired as funeral director, he was not sitting idle. He spent a great deal of time working in the Hapeville community and with his Masonic lodge.
Mr. Lewis was a 33rd-degree Scottish Rite Mason and at the time of his death was serving as the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Valley of Atlanta and the Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Georgia F.& A.M.
In addition to his stepdaughter and son, Mr. Lewis is also survived by his wife of 42 years, Jackie Lawrence Lewis of Demorest; another son, Walter Lewis of Hokes Bluff, Ala.; daughter, Tammy Lewis of Jackson; sisters, Betty Peavy of Forest Park, and Sandra Hall of Stockbridge; and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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