NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Nashville businessman and community leader will be honored with a new historical marker by the Metro Historical Commission this week.
Kossie “K” Gardner, born in Pulaski in 1897 as Carthegerius Crosby, learned the funeral trade in his younger years and eventually worked as a farmer, Pullman porter and undertaker. He eventually opened up his own funeral home in downtown Nashville at the YMCA building at 4th Avenue N and Cedar Street and ran a motorized ambulance service.
He adopted the surname Gardner during an indentured apprenticeship, according to MHC.
Neighborhood News: Stories impacting your community | Read More
In 1925 he moved the funeral business to Jefferson Street, where he continued to work for 64 years, MHC said in a release. He was instrumental in the founding of Hills of Calvary Cemetery and the Gold Coast neighborhood in the 1950s, Nashville’s first African American subdivision…