Puebloan Charles McCulley's family says he was "born into the funeral business.” He assisted with his first embalming at the age of eight. His mortuary served southern Colorado’s African Americans and Hispanics in an earlier time when others wouldn’t. Charles McCulley died in October at age 78. His daughter Yanera McCulley-Sedillo runs Angelus Chapel Mortuaries in Pueblo with her family. She says her father was a visionary in the funeral business, who implemented many innovations, like taking women out of the back office and putting them in jobs that many funeral homes saw as the exclusive domain of men.
Hear about other Coloradans who died in 2017 in this year-end series 2017 Remembrances.
