Dabney F E Funeral Home

Being a funeral director and simultaneously being a nurse was an advantage for Henrietta Catherine Wiley Dabney.“A funeral has an emotional impact and sometimes people would fall out in the pews,” said her son, Floyd Everett Dabney Jr. of Ashland.“She would be there to comfort them and to administer smelling salts.”Mrs. Dabney, who had owned F.E. Dabney Funeral Home in Ashland since the death of her husband in January 2006, died Tuesday at home of complications of a stroke she suffered in May 2014.The 86-year-old Ashland resident, who was one of the oldest active funeral directors in Virginia, will be honored at a funeral at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Shiloh Baptist Church, 106 S. James St. in Ashland, where she was a member. Burial will be in the church cemetery.Mrs. Dabney went into the funeral business when she married in 1952, her son said.Her husband, Floyd Everett Dabney Sr., returned from military service, became a licensed funeral director and supplemented his income by driving a cab.Mrs. Dabney became a licensed funeral director during the 1960s. “In those days you could get a license to direct funerals but not to embalm. When they changed it (so you had to do both), she was grandfathered in,” her son said.They established F.E. Dabney Funeral Home in 1955. “One of the main jobs my mom had was manning the phones,” her son said.“There were no cellphones, no pagers. (When he was out driving the cab,) “she would have to track him down to let him know that he had business,” her son said.“There was a phone in downtown Ashland beside Cross’s Grocery Store that was a call-phone for cab drivers. That was one of the first places she would call.”Besides attending to phones, she would console families and assist at funerals.Her husband’s brother, Claudius “Mick” Dabney, also worked with them. He died in November 2005. Floyd Dabney Sr. died two months later. Their deaths left the business in a predicament.“I had my degree but was not licensed. Mom was licensed but couldn’t embalm. We opera... (Richmond.com)

Although the title says it is a musical, it is not.The play, to be performed at Santa Fe High School at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, and Friday, Dec. 2, is said to have been based on several 1940s mystery movies, including “The Cat and the Canary,” one of Bob Hope’s first films.The play takes place in a mansion in Chappaqua, N.Y., in December 1940, specifically the library. The mansion is owned by Elsa Von Grossenknueten, and her maid, Helsa Wenzel.According to an online account of the play, in the opening scene Helsa is killed by a masked figure. We also see Elsa talking to a police officer, Michael Kelly, about some sort of undercover scheme. Both are unaware of the maid's murder.The next morning, we see Helsa again, only now her entire personality seems to have changed overnight. The guests Elsa has invited soon begin to arrive. They have been invited for a backer’s audition to the Musical White House Merry-Go-Round.The first of the invited guests is an Irish tenor named Patrick O'Reilly. He's quickly followed by a theatre director named Ken De La Maize, and a singer/dancer named Nikki Crandall. Nikki is followed in by a young (and bad) comedian named Eddie McCuen, who takes an instant liking to Nikki.While talking, Eddie realizes that everyone coming (including Marjorie Baverstock, the producer, and Roger Hopewell and Bernice Roth, the writers) were all part of the creative team that made “Manhattan Holiday,” in which The Stage Door Slasher murdered three women. Eddie instantly wants to leave, but decides to stay after the rest of the team enters and woos him into staying.After things get underway, Marjorie is murdered and the body of Helsa is discovered. There’s a series of dizzy conversations, multiple trips through secret doorways leading to a labyrinth of hidden passageways, multiple crimes, and criminals are revealed. Eventually after much murderous mayhem the Stage Door Slasher is revealed through deciphering Bebe's coded notebook.  Revolving bookcases, hidden passageways ... (Edmond Sun)