Inventive Mortician R.N. Horton - The Washington Post

R.N. Horton, 92, a mortician who directed funerals in Washington for more than a half-century and adopted innovative touches along the way, died July 12 at his home in the District after a heart attack.

Mr. Horton was a native North Carolinian who considered becoming a minister before opting for a career as a funeral director. He graduated from the School of Mortuary Science in Birmingham and, with a sister living in Washington, settled in this area in the mid-1930s.

He and his wife, Julia Ennis Horton, opened a funeral home in the 1200 block of Fourth Street NW in 1936. They closed that funeral home and opened another in the 1300 block of U Street NW in the early 1940s.

Mr. Horton, a lumbering figure with a booming voice, became active in associations involving businesses in the U Street corridor and served as president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce.

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He also was a deacon at Mount Airy Baptist Church in Washington and a member of the Democratic Central Committee, the NAACP and the Independent Funeral Directors Association.

As a mentor to aspiring funeral directors, he taught them to think unconventionally and cater to the wants of families, said his son, Randolph Horton, who works in the family business. The elder Horton donned lighter color suits at funerals and offered a white hearse instead of the traditional black.

The family sold the funeral home on U Street in the early 1970s and established Horton's Funeral Service in the 600 block of Kennedy Street NW. Mr. Horton continued as a funeral director until the early 1990s and helped run the business until his death.

His wife died in 1998.

In addition to his son, of Washington, survivors include a daughter, Donna Horton Slater of Ocean Pines, Md.; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

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