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Coconut Grove Cemetery Project, 2826 Crystal Court, Miami, FL (2026)

09/01/2026

JOSEPH MICHAEL MAJOR (1878–1946)

Joseph Michael Major was born in April 1878 at Turtle Cove on Long Island, Bahamas, the sixth child of Michael Trafalgar Major and Georgianna Turnquest Major. According to family history, his ancestry included both enslaved people and slaveholders. After his parents separated, Joseph reportedly left home at about twelve years old because he did not get along with his stepmother. He never returned.

Joseph later told his daughter that he had been shipwrecked near Tampico, Mexico, before making his way to Key West and eventually South Florida. The 1910 United States census records that he immigrated to the United States in 1903, although later records give conflicting dates for his arrival.

On April 28, 1906, Joseph married Charity Roberts in Coconut Grove. Their marriage was solemnized by the Reverend H. A. Parris of St. Agnes Episcopal Church. Joseph and Charity raised a large family in Coconut Grove. Of their fourteen pregnancies, eleven children—four sons and seven daughters—survived infancy. Census records identify several of their children, including Lloyd, Louise, Joseph, Bernice, William, Louis, Juanita, Georgia, Dorothy, Ernestine, and Yvonne.

Joseph supported his family through many kinds of work. In 1910, he was employed as a farm laborer. His 1918 World War I registration card describes him as a self-employed woodcutter. By 1915, he had established Coconut Grove’s first bicycle repair shop. It was initially located on Charles Avenue and later operated at 3547 Grand Avenue. The 1930 census recorded him as a warehouse porter, while the 1940 census listed him as a laborer.

Family accounts recall that Joseph dug graves in the Coconut Grove Cemetery and excavated septic tanks, as well as working at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. He is also remembered for growing and planting many of the banyan trees that once lined both sides of U.S. 1 along the northern boundary of Coconut Grove. As the trees matured, their branches formed a leafy tunnel over the roadway. They were later removed when the highway was widened.

In 1930, Joseph and Charity lived with seven of their children at 3663 Florida Avenue in a home valued at $1,000. During the hardships of the Great Depression, the family lost the property they had been purchasing for more than a decade. By 1940, they were renting a home at 3716 Florida Avenue. Despite years of labor and adversity, Joseph retained a memorable sense of humor. One of his favorite sayings was, “A liar has to have a damn good memory” and over the cash register in his bicycle repair shop was a sign, "In God we trust. All othes pay cash."

Joseph Michael Major died of prostate cancer at his Florida Avenue home on July 18, 1946. Following a wake held at the family residence, he was laid to rest in the Coconut Grove Cemetery. His burial vault now lies beneath that of his daughter Iva Major Hopkins, who died in 1990. His wife Charity, previously honored here, is buried Charlotte Jane Memorial Park cemetery.

Joseph’s life reflects the experience of a Bahamian immigrant who helped build and sustain early Coconut Grove through his labor, enterprise, and devotion to his family. His work left traces in the community’s homes, cemetery, businesses, and once tree-lined landscape.

Images and biographical information provided by his grandson, Donald R. Hopkins, MD

08/28/2026

POST UPDATE: I mistakenly posted a photograph of Naomi’s mother Flora! Thanks to Wendy Rust for catching that. Does anyone have a photograph of Naomi that I can share? 🙏 Thank you one and all!

NAOMI LOUISE MCKENZIE

January 5 or 6, 1927–March 18, 1999

Naomi Louise McKenzie was born in Miami in January 1927, the daughter of James A. McKenzie and Flora Mynett McKenzie, Bahamian immigrants who helped build a life and community in Coconut Grove. Her father came from Cat Island in 1916 and worked for many years as a gardener at James Deering’s Vizcaya estate before establishing his own landscaping business. Her mother joined him in Coconut Grove in 1923 and became a devoted member and employee of the Church of God of Prophecy.

Naomi grew up in the family home at 3652 Percival Avenue alongside her siblings Wilfred, Daniel, Brandhilda, and Edna. The 1940 census recorded her as a thirteen-year-old student who had completed the seventh grade. By 1950, she was twenty-three and working forty hours a week as a maid in private homes—one of the many Black women whose domestic labor quietly sustained Miami households and contributed to the growth of the city.

Naomi remained closely rooted in Coconut Grove throughout her life. She died on March 18, 1999, at the age of seventy-two. Her funeral was held at Christ Episcopal Church, an institution deeply connected to the Grove’s historic Bahamian community, with arrangements by Range Funeral Home.

Naomi was laid to rest in the Coconut Grove cemetery, near the neighborhood where she had spent her life. Her grave marker gives her birth date as January 6, 1927, while her Social Security record lists January 5. Through both her own working life and the pioneering story of her family, Naomi Louise McKenzie belongs to the history of the Bahamian-descended community that helped shape Coconut Grove.

08/27/2026

MARVIN MATHES (1926–1999)

Today we remember Marvin Mathes, a World War II Navy veteran and City of Miami caretaker who unexpectedly became a witness in one of the most sensational kidnapping cases of the 1960s.

Marvin Mathes was born on July 1, 1926, in Fort Valley, Georgia. His World War II-era registration card places him at 3461 Elizabeth Street in Coconut Grove and names his grandmother, Mrs. Annie Felton, as the person who would always know his address.

Military records show that Mathes enlisted in the United States Navy in June 1944, when he was not quite eighteen, and was discharged on April 2, 1946. His grave marker identifies him as STM1, Steward’s Mate First Class, a rating in which many Black sailors served during the segregated World War II-era Navy.

More than twenty years later, Mathes found himself unexpectedly drawn into the 1968 kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle, a 20-year-old Emory University student who was abducted from a motel in Georgia and held for a $500,000 ransom.

At the time, Mathes was employed by the City of Miami as caretaker of a vacant estate at 2901 Brickell Avenuen that had been purchased by the city for a proposed public park. Today, that property is Alice Wainwright Park.

On December 18, 1968, Mathes noticed a blue Volvo pull onto the property. He later told police that a “good looking” young white man and a young dark-haired woman got out of the car and spent about half an hour looking around. They asked Mathes what time the park closed and then left.

The following day, police arrived at the property, and Mathes learned that what he had witnessed might be connected to the Mackle kidnapping and the attempted delivery of the ransom money. Mathes helped investigators retrace what he had seen. The Miami News photographed him standing on the Brickell property, pointing toward the location where the Volvo had been parked.

Mathes seemed almost bemused by the attention. Asked how carefully he had observed the strangers, he told the Herald: “I didn’t look at ’em too close. I don’t like to look at people too close.” Yet his recollection of the car, the couple, and their movements became one small piece of a massive FBI and police investigation.
Barbara Mackle was eventually found alive in Georgia after having been buried underground in a specially constructed box for more than three days.

For Mathes, the episode was an extraordinary interruption in what otherwise appears to have been the life of a working Miami resident. The newspaper photographs are especially valuable today: they allow us not only to know his name, but to see the man whose grave we pass in the Historic Coconut Grove Cemetery.

Marvin Mathes died on August 3, 1999, at age 73.

Marvin Mathes’s story is a wonderful reminder of what can lie behind a single name on a cemetery marker: a Coconut Grove resident, a World War II veteran, a city worker—and, for a few remarkable days in December 1968, a witness to a crime that captured the nation’s attention.

Every name deserves remembrance.

08/25/2026

HUGHLIN WILLIAM BROWN
November 11, 1935 – March 24, 2001

Hughlin William Brown was born in Miami on November 11, 1935, the son of Bahamnian immigrants William Brown and Viola Varence Brown. He grew up in Coconut Grove and attended George Washington Carver High School, where he belonged to a generation of young Black students determined to pursue opportunities.

In May 1955, as he approached graduation, Hughlin was featured in The Miami News alongside several of his Carver classmates. Asked about his plans for the future, the nineteen-year-old spoke candidly about both his ambitions and his family’s circumstances. He wanted to attend college, but because his sister was already enrolled, he knew he would have to wait. Instead, he planned to join the United States Air Force, serve for four years, and then continue his education.

“I want to go to college but my sister is there now so I can’t go right away. About two months after graduation I plan to join the Air Force. I’ll stay in the AF for four years and then when I get out I’m going to college.”

His words preserve something rarely found in official records: the voice of a young man standing at the threshold of adulthood, looking toward a future he hoped to build through service and education. They also reveal the sacrifices families often made so that each child might have an opportunity to attend college.

Hughlin William Brown rests in the Historic Coconut Grove Cemetery. His grave marker records the boundaries of his life, but his youthful words allow us to remember something more: his hopes, his determination, and the future he once imagined for himself.

Every name deserves remembrance.

08/24/2026

HARMON CAREY (1886–1969)

Today we remember Harmon Carey, a Bahamian immigrant who made Coconut Grove his home for more than six decades. Carey was born March 31, 1886, in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, Bahamas. Records indicate that he came to the United States as a young man around 1905. By 1920, he was firmly established in Coconut Grove with his wife, Sarah Clarke Carey, and their young children, Charles Harmon Carey and Elizabeth "Sarah" Carey.

The 1920 census offers an especially revealing glimpse of the life Carey had built. He was working as a janitor in a private home, could read and write, and—remarkably for a Black Bahamian immigrant of this period—owned his home free of a mortgage. At that time, however, he was still recorded as an alien rather than a U.S. citizen.

Over the years, Carey appears repeatedly in records connected with Coconut Grove's working community. A 1926 Miami city directory listed “Harmon Carey, drug store, Coconut Grove,” suggesting that at one point he operated or worked in a neighborhood drugstore. Property records also document his investment in Coconut Grove real estate: in 1923, F. Turner transferred to Carey property in Frow’s Homestead for $500, and a later property record lists Harmon Carey as an owner in Jean de Hedouville’s subdivision.

By 1950, Carey was still working, then as a caretaker in a private home. The census recorded him at 3456 Grand Avenue with Sarah and several lodgers and, importantly, identified him as a U.S. citizen, indicating that he had naturalized sometime after 1920.

Sarah died in 1964, and Harmon lived another five years. He died on February 4, 1969, at the age of 82. His obituary noted that he had come to Coconut Grove 61 years earlier from the Bahamas and described him as a retired gardener. Survivors included his daughter, Elizabeth Bullard, his sister Christine Dawkins, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. His funeral was held at Christ Episcopal Church, reflecting another important connection to Coconut Grove's historic Bahamian community.
Harmon Carey was laid to rest at Charlotte Jane Memorial Park, where the burial register records his last residence as 3363 Thomas Avenue.

Carey's story is one of migration, work, property ownership, family, and belonging. Arriving from the Bahamas as a young man, he spent more than sixty years in Coconut Grove—working as a janitor, caretaker, gardener, and perhaps a neighborhood businessman; acquiring property; becoming an American citizen; raising a family; and helping build the community he called home.

Every name deserves remembrance.

08/23/2026

RAMONA LANETTE WALKER (1971–1972)

Today we remember Ramona Lanette Walker, a little girl whose life was heartbreakingly brief—and whose story did not end with her death.

Ramona was born in late 1971 to Randolph and Carolyn Walker in Coconut Grove. She had a twin brother, Randall, and and older sister Torri. The two babies slept in nearby cribs in the family’s apartment at 3560 Grand Avenue.

On the morning of September 11, 1972, nine-month-old Ramona was playing in her crib. Sometime between 8:00 and 8:45 a.m., a ribbon attached to her pacifier apparently became tangled around the crib, strangling her. Her father found her unresponsive and called the Miami Rescue Squad. She was rushed to Mercy Hospital, where doctors succeeded in reviving her after she had been without a heartbeat or pulse for approximately thirty minutes. She was then transferred to Variety Children’s Hospital but died there later that evening.

Ramona was laid to rest at Charlotte Jane Memorial Cemetery in Coconut Grove. Her small grave was covered by a concrete slab inscribed:

Ramona L. Walker
Nov. 24, 1971 – Sept. 11, 1972

Fifteen years later, in April 1987, Ramona’s name appeared in the news again under terrible circumstances. Someone entered the cemetery during the night, removed the concrete cover from her grave, smashed her wooden casket, and took some of her remains. Miami police investigated the desecration as part of a disturbing series of grave robberies at Coconut Grove cemeteries. The Miami Herald reported that another grave at the same cemetery had been violated four years earlier.

The newspaper photograph from 1987 is difficult to look at: Ramona’s tiny grave lies open while a Miami detective examines the damage. But another photograph allows us to remember her differently—not as the victim of a crime, but as the beautiful baby girl she was.

Ramona Walker lived only nine months. More than fifty years later, her name remains part of the history of Coconut Grove and of Charlotte Jane Memorial Cemetery.

Today, we say her name: Ramona L. Walker.

Every name deserves remembrance.

08/22/2026

This is a post for PRETTY NASH. She had sent me a message on messenger but I cannot respond to her for some reason. These are the individuals she asked about:

08/21/2026

INEZ LORRAINE NORWOOD STEWART SMITH (1930–2008)

Today we remember Inez Lorraine Norwood Stewart Smith, born in Perry, Houston County, Georgia, to Marion Holmes and Jack Norwood. She was the eldest of fourteen children, only five of whom survived to adulthood. Charlie "Sonny," Albert "Buddy," Walter "Tat" and Lavern "Sister" Norwood Billings Carter.

Inez was first married to Calvin Coolidge Stewart, with whom she had two children, Phyllis Lorraine and Jack Norwood Stewart. A few years later, she married Clarence Smith Sr., and together they had five children: Charles Michael Smith, Clarence Smith Jr., Derrell Lamar Smith, Regina Denise Smith, and Wilhelmina Smith, who died shortly after birth.

Her daughter Phyllis Stewart Williams remembered her as an extraordinary woman and mother who always made sure her children “had the best of everything”—right down to the dollar they received for the neighborhood ice cream truck. Resourceful and hardworking, Inez often held down at least two jobs while caring for her family and cooking—always cooking. To supplement the family income, she sold homemade dinners.

Food was one of the many ways Inez expressed her love. Her grandson Jamal remembered her as “everyone’s mother in the community” and an exceptional cook whose specialties included chitterlings, oxtail, and collard greens. Phyllis especially remembers her mother’s seafood gumbo, a beloved family tradition that continues to be recreated at gatherings today.

But Inez’s generosity extended far beyond her own family. She opened her home to friends and strangers alike, whether they needed a good meal or a place to sleep. Warm, funny, and outgoing, she never met a stranger and had a gift for making people laugh.

When tragedy touched the family, Inez once again became its anchor, raising her grandkids Danta, Jamal, and Lamar after the deaths of their parents. The woman remembered as a mother to her community became a mother once more to another generation of her own family.

In her later years, that devotion was returned to her. Her children and grandchildren, together with her godsons Kenneth “Moon” Dixon, Carl “Fish” Springer, Kenny Hamp, and Antonio Hester, and goddaughters, Shannon and Tanya Mills, Christy and Brandy McKenzie watched over Inez and made sure she was lovingly cared for. She was also survived by her longtime partner, Frank Brown Sr.

Inez’s legacy lives on through the generations that followed her—her children and grandchildren, including Danta, Jamal, Lamar, and Samuel “Buzz,” Aryana, Alex, Shasta, and CJ; her great-grandchildren, Stephen, Taquan, Trevor, Treasure, Daisja, and Danaisja, Makhii, Autumn, Frank Jr. Secret, Lauren, LJ, and her great-great-grandchildren, Trevor Jr., Lowe and Mason. More than names on a family tree, these generations are part of Inez’s enduring legacy. She is remembered as a hardworking mother, a gifted cook, a generous neighbor, and a woman whose home and heart always seemed to have room for one more person.

Every name deserves remembrance.

08/20/2026

WILLIAM JAMES HOPKINS (1894–1945)

Today we remember William James Hopkins, whose journey from the Bahamas to Coconut Grove became part of the larger story of Bahamian families who helped build a community in South Florida.

William was born in Nassau on October 27, 1894, the eldest child of James Henry Hopkins and Alice Victoria Roberts Hopkins. Soon after his birth, the family moved to his mother’s hometown of Cherokee Sound, Abaco. In 1919, William married Emma Charlotte Bain of Crossing Rock, Abaco, at the Methodist Church in Cherokee Sound.

William first traveled to Miami in 1918 aboard the schooner Roberts & Russell. He later returned to the Bahamas before immigrating permanently to the United States. His 1940 Declaration of Intention records his arrival in Miami aboard the S.S. Nassauvian in February 1924.

William and Emma made their home on Florida Avenue in Coconut Grove, just a block from William’s brother Leonard Hopkins and his family. Together, William and Emma raised a large family—thirteen children in all, the first two born in the Bahamas and the others in Coconut Grove.

Described by his family as having a kind disposition, William worked for the City of Miami at the Coconut Grove incinerator, known as Old Smokey. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen on November 11, 1942.

Tragically, William died on November 7, 1945, following an automobile accident on U.S. 1 near Goulds, south of Miami. At the time, Emma was pregnant with their youngest son. After William's death, she named the baby Willie.

William James Hopkins is buried beside his brother Leonard in Charlotte Jane Memorial Park—a final resting place for so many members of Coconut Grove’s early Bahamian community.
Nearly eighty years after his death, William’s story remains intertwined with those of the Bahamian families who crossed the waters between the islands and Miami, established homes, raised families, worked, and helped shape Coconut Grove.

Every name deserves remembrance.

08/19/2026

HENRY NEWTON CLARKE (1897–1958)

Born on January 24, 1897, in Glenelg, Eleuthera, Bahamas, Henry Newton Clarke was the son of John N. Clarke and Charlotte Gibson Clarke. Like many Bahamians of his generation, Clarke immigrated to Florida, becoming part of the community that helped shape early Coconut Grove.

Clarke arrived in Miami in October 1912, when he was about fifteen years old. His naturalization papers record that he entered the United States aboard the schooner "Mystery J."

On November 15, 1925, he married Vera Ellen Thompson in Miami. The couple had two children, Eloyce Louise and Henry Newton Jr. Although one record lists his occupation as a cook, Clarke's obituary remembered him as a “pioneer Coconut Grove citizen” and described him as a successful investor who had accumulated substantial real-estate holdings in the Grove and surrounding areas, including Fort Lauderdale.

On March 21, 1958, Clarke became ill while driving, apparently suffering a brain hemorrhage. His automobile crashed after he lost control, and he died several hours later at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was 61 years old. Funeral services were held at St. Paul AME Church. This wife, Vera Ellen Thompson Clarke Allen (1904-1991) is also buried in the Coconut Grove cemeteries.

His story—beginning on Eleuthera, continuing with migration to Miami as a teenager, and culminating in property ownership and a life rooted in Coconut Grove—is another thread in the larger story of the Bahamian community that helped build and sustain Coconut Grove.

Every name deserves remembrance.

Coconut Grove Cemetery Project

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