Page 36 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2023

PEOPLE
The Story of O’Keefe v. Loewen
story by Kelsey Sunderman-Foster and courtesy of the O’Keefe Family photos courtesy of the O’Keefe Family and Amazon Prime Video
n the real world, no one expects the underdog to win. That’s exactly why these stories of triumph – the “little guy” coming out on top – are so powerful. The Burial is one such story.
Unlike most of the underdog stories that make it on film, this one is rooted in reality. Not just reality but our home, the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Since 1865, Bradford-O’Keefe
Funeral Homes have been serving the families of the Coast with an unmatched care and commitment to honoring our loved ones, but things weren’t always easy for the small business.
Inspired by these true events, The Burial tells the tale of a funeral home owner, Bradford-Okeefe’s own Jeremiah “Jerry” O’Keefe, who enlists the help of a charismatic personal injury lawyer, Willie E. Gary, to help save his family business from a corporate behemoth, exposing a complex web of race, power, and injustice.
I and a few of our staff members were blessed to have been invited to an early screening of The Burial, distributed by Amazon Prime Video, last month, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Although aspects of the story were dramatized for the big screen,
I was amazed by just how much of the movie hit home. We in the theater experienced the emotional turbulence of the courtroom, navigated the complexities of social injustices past and present, and rejoiced for O’Keefe’s victory as though it were our own. The emotion was palpable, and made all the more special by the story’s real and tangible roots to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The movie is now available on Amazon Prime, and whether you’ve already watched it or haven’t yet had a chance to see it, the watch is made even more enjoyable when you read more about the true events of the trial. The O’Keefe family has provided a website with tons of amazing information on the case, as well as differences between the true events and those portrayed in the film. Here are but a few of the stand out facts versus fiction from the website, www.theburial.org.
36 | November 2023
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— Time Magazine, June 2001
www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living
No one foresaw that this lawsuit... would bring to light a vast but quiet transformation in the wa”y America buries its dead.