photograph by vance lauderdale
It’s hard to miss the impressive Mancini monument in Calvary Cemetery, with the graves watched over by three beautifully carved angels.
Dear Vance: On a recent visit to Calvary Cemetery, I was impressed by the large monument devoted to the Mancini family. Who was Joseph Mancini, and what did he do in Memphis? — G.L., Memphis.
Dear G.L.: Calvary is a spectacular cemetery, with grand memorials and ornately carved gravestones. A walk among them shows the impact the Italian community has had on our city, with so many graves bearing Italian names and inscriptions. More than most cemeteries, the markers at Calvary also have a somewhat unusual feature: Many carry small oval portraits of the deceased, mounted on the face of the tombstone.
It’s hard to miss the Mancini family plot, watched over by a pair of winged angels, with a third standing before a ruggedly carved cross. All three are beautifully carved, and note also the nicely carved “M” ornaments on either side of the steps.
photograph by vance lauderdale
The detail on the carvings is extraordinary.
So why such an impressive monument? Well, The Commercial Appeal, noting in its edition of October 30, 1909, that Joseph Mancini had been “called by death,” put it quite simply: “Throughout his career here he had acquired an enviable reputation of a man of fine business instincts, of a charitable bend, and of an upright mind.”
Born in Genoa, Italy, in 1852, he came to America at an early age, and when he was 13 moved to Memphis, presumably with other members of his family. What the Mancinis did between immigrating and arriving in this city, I cannot say. At any rate, he soon began working in a saloon on Main Street, working his way up to barkeeper, a profession he would follow for the rest of his days. Every few years, it seems, he took a job with another tavern in Memphis, until he finally found a nice location at 35 Madison and opened his own place. At first, it was known simply as Mancini’s, but around 1900 he moved to 119 Madison and gave his bar a rather catchy name: The New National. (There was no “Old” National, in case you were wondering.)
His obituary noted, “Throughout the years, Mr. Mancini persevered in honest endeavor, and with the respect of his fellow citizens acquired a considerable fortune.”
“Locating his business in the very heart of the business district,” observed The Commercial Appeal, “he became widely known and thoroughly respected and numbered among his friends the first citizens of Memphis.” He must have been an enterprising businessman; city directory ads in 1900 indicated he had one of the first 200 telephones in Memphis (the number for The New National was simply 194).
Sometime around 1885 — I couldn’t find the exact date — Mancini did something remarkable and, to my mind at least, quite romantic. As the newspapers told it, “He returned to Italy to claim a bride, Miss Regina Forte, at that time. She had been the sweetheart of his childhood days in sunny Italy, and he brought her back to Memphis and to America to share in the prosperity he had found in the West.” Isn’t that a lovely story?
His obituary noted, “Throughout the years, Mr. Mancini persevered in honest endeavor, and with the respect of his fellow citizens acquired a considerable fortune.” So I suppose that explains the elaborate monument for Joseph and other members of his family.
Mancini took ill in 1908, suffering from pernicious anemia, and “during the last months of his life visited health resorts in the North, but in vain, the treatment he underwent serving only to stay the end.” He was laid to rest on a hillside in Calvary, next to the grave of his seven-year-old daughter, who had died of asthma — an untreatable disease in those days — in 1886. His wife died in 1914 and was buried with her husband and daughter. Over the years, their three other adult children eventually joined them there.
Summing up his life, The Commercial Appeal observed, “His retail liquor business earned for its proprietor a reputation as an upright and public-spirited businessman. The death of Mr. Mancini will be genuinely regretted by his many, many friends.”
I’m sure my own “many, many friends” will feel the same sadness about me — but only because I owe all of them money.
Got a question for Vance?
Email: askvance@memphismagazine.com
Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis Magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101
Online: memphismagazine.com
