Above: Asa Candler, Jr.,’s family plot. His section occupies a high point in the cemetery and includes a sizeable share of the land, ensuring that no one would ever crowd him or his loved ones. He stands apart, far from Asa, Sr.’s family plot, far from Howard and Lucy and Walter, far from his parents and uncles and aunts. His own children are with him, and his youngest brother William is close by.
On January 11, 1953, Asa Griggs Candler, Jr., passed away. The reported story was that he died of a “liver malignancy.” Liver cancer is rare, but when it develops as a primary cancer it typically appears in people with cirrhosis or fatty liver disease. Widely known as a long-time alcoholic and morbidly obese in his latter years, liver cancer is certainly possible.
His estate was estimated around $2mm, although a court order barred the full total from publication. He left most of the money to his wife, Florence, and his five living children, and he left $8500 each to seven of his servants. At one time he had owned more than 30 major Atlanta rental properties and one of the largest and most beautiful estates in the city. At the time of his death he had only a fraction of his fortune to leave behind.
His older brother Howard was one of his pallbearers.
“Mr. Candler’s death ended one of the most colorful and eventful lives of this century.”
His burial became a point of contention among his wife and children. Believing that West View Mausoleum and Abbey would be completed and that it would achieve the status he dreamed of, he expected to be interred in a marble sarcophagus in a place of special honor within his mausoleum. He would be a pharaoh in his own Great Pyramid. But work on the mausoleum had ground to a halt. Large sections, including most of the third floor, were still incomplete and the new management hadn’t prioritized funding.
Florence did not intend to honor his wishes. Some of his children fought her, believing he should have his final wish honored. Eventually she won and had him interred in the lawn in his family plot, next to his first wife, Helen, and his first son, Asa III. Later Florence would be buried next to him. Some of his children would also eventually occupy spaces in the family plot. Finally, Florence had a monument erected in his honor, something his landscaping revisions had tried to eliminate.
The monument is simple, which itself is confirmation that he wasn’t involved in its design. It is visually unobtrusive and easy to drive past without noticing, which Buddie would have never agreed to. His headstone lies flat to the ground, consistent with his redesign, and often is covered in a layer of dried grass clippings. A large ant colony has taken over the far corner, near his son John’s headstone. Sixty years after his passing, his grave is mostly unvisited, and no one leaves flowers.
Except for me. I try to leave flowers when I visit, if only to say thank you for the stories.
“Asa Candler, Jr., was a dreamer and a doer. His mind was never at rest, but was always full of plans. Many of those plans for the benefit of the community were more matured than one would think from a man with so many plans. He never thought in small things, but all things which appealed to him were large in scope.”
The Death of Buddie Candler Gallery
The Westview Cemetery vault originally intended to be Asa Candler, Jr.’s final resting place.
