The Closet That Preached a Funeral

When Miss Ernestine Hayes of Tupelo, Mississippi, died at eighty-one, her family expected a modest service. She had never held office, never led a committee, never once stood behind a pulpit. But when they opened the doors of Greater Hope Baptist Church that Saturday morning, the line stretched past the parking lot and down Gloster Street. One by one, mourners told the same kind of story.…