For nearly 50 years, it was Ernest Augusta Griffin, the funeral director of Griffin Funeral Home on the South Side, who stood where she stood: near a family in need and a well-dressed casket that housed the dead, people like legendary Olympian Jesse Owens, Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad and Robert H. Lawrence Jr., America's first black astronaut.

Love was among hundreds of family members and friends who gathered inside the chapel Tuesday morning to pay their last respects to Griffin, who died last week at the age of 83.

Outside of his family and the funeral industry, Griffin is mostly known for his decision to hang a Confederate flag outside his establishment in 1990. Some African-Americans wanted the flag taken down, saying it was an insult.