December 2009
42 posts
Why A Mom Should Be Buried with her Dead Soldier... →
Guest Article By: Mona Gable Writer and Journalist focusing on politics and parenting. This article is a response to an earlier article that surfaced a few months about a mother, Denise…
Grieving Family Discovers Wrong Body in Casket... →
A grieving family learned their 95-year-old great-grandmother had been cremated when they found a stranger’s body in her casket, and a Connecticut funeral home is being investigated in the…
Study Finds the Lack of Flowers at Funerals May... →
Recent research indicates that sympathy flowers may not only brighten and warm a funeral or memorial service setting, but also have a positive impact on the emotional well being of the bereaved….
Wife Holds Husband's Fake Funeral in Insurance... →
A man was arrested Tuesday for having “faked” his death in a conspiracy with his wife in order to claim a 1.8 billion won insurance payout. The two not only fabricated the death certificate but…
Batesville Called Back...Read The Dialogue →
I have to admit when I received a call back yesterday from Batesville marketing director Teresa Gyulafia, I was pretty surprised. After placing a call on Monday to confirm speculation that…
2010 Viral Video Challenge - Thinking Outside the... →
2009 was a huge year for viral videos, and viral video advertising. Many companies used video sharing sites like YouTube to create viral video advertising campaigns, and …
7-Secret, New, Improved, Ways Funeral Directors... →
Apparently their is someone in the funeral industry who believes that funeral homes, with the help of industry companies like FuneralOne and ConnectingDirectors.com, have came together in 2009…
Confirmed: Batesville Purchased Burial Vault... →
Following up from yesterdays article - “Did Batesville Purchase A Burial Vault Company?”, I have been able to make contact with a representative from the Batesville/Hillenbrand communications…
Funeral Home Offering Free Burial for Those Who... →
ROME, GA - A local funeral home is doing what it can to keep people from drinking and driving on New Year’s Eve. Between now and noon on Thursday, drivers can visit McGuire, Jennings and Miller…
Who will carry Your Casket? →
I found this article online and I really wanted to share it with you. This article makes you stop and think about the legacy we are leaving behind as well as helping those in the industry…
Funeral Director On List of 50 best careers of... →
As one of the 50 best careers of 2010, this should have strong growth over the next decade. The Rundown:
Few careers may be as little understood as that of a funeral director. Funeral…
Out with the Aughts: 'D' is For Death = Investment... →
The following article is by: Ian McGugan. Ian is a freelance business journalist who writes for the Financial Post. In this article Ian talks about the funeral industry as an investment…
Did Batesville Purchase A Burial Vault Company? →
Last week the news came out that Goria Corporation (maker of the patented Eonian™ and Endurance™ burial vaults) had closed it burial vault business. The following was posted on their website: “My purpose in writing today is to advise you of a change in our business. Effective November 16, 2009. Goria sold the molds and intellectual property rights on which our vaults are produced. Goria has...
Funeral Worker Accused of Body-Snatching →
FORREST CITY, AR - A worker at a Mid-South funeral home is accused of soliciting families for their loved one’s bodies - a case of body snatching now being investigating by the state of Arkansas….
SCI Selling Funeral Homes? →
The Texas-headquartered corporation that bought Vicksburg’s Frank J. Fisher Funeral Home in 2007 has sold it to a Mississippi-based company whose manager controls several other funeral homes…
Caskets: Everything the Mortician Won't Tell You,... →
I understand why there is a consumer funeral alliance and a need for one but, I think sometimes they can make something out of nothing. No, the cheapest caskets are not always the ones that are…
Judge Rules Chicago May Move Cemetery For O'Hare... →
So much for resting in peace. It seems the deceased can’t even catch a break anymore. It is impossible to tell from the following article if O’Hare airport has any other option, but I don’t…
Cremated Remains Found in Atlanta-Area Storage →
A legal team that was seeking a bankrupt funeral home’s financial records instead made a macabre discovery: nearly 100 boxes of cremated remains, some dating back more than two decades, stashed…
Service Corp. Extends Deadline For Keystone Shares →
HOUSTON — Funeral home and cemetery operator Service Corp. International said Friday it has extended its offer to purchase all shares of rival Keystone North America Inc. Service International…
Mom Tweets About Son's Pool Accident, Death As It... →
A grieving Florida mother is under fire for posting a Twitter message about her dying son just 34 minutes after the 2-year-old boy was found in the bottom of her backyard pool. “Please pray like…
Matthews International Corporation Announces... →
Matthews International Corporation (Nasdaq: MATW) today announced the acquisition of United Memorial Products, Inc., a leading supplier of granite memorial products, burial vaults and caskets in…
Man Suing Over Wrong Body in Casket →
NEW YORK — A man alleges in a lawsuit a New York funeral home mistakenly sent a different body to the Dominican Republic instead of his mother’s remains. The son of Ana Belen Fernandez is suing…
Funeral Director Reacts to Handling First Walmart... →
Last week I posted an article that contained the dialogue I had with a representative from the Walmart media relations’ team (Is Walmart Selling Any Caskets? I Called to Find Out, Read The…
Social Networking for the Funeral Industry –... →
Guest Writer: Bonnie Quintanilla has 20+ years of corporate and agency marketing communications and public relations and social media experience. She co-founded Corridor Communications, Inc.,…
Ten Ways the Funeral Industry Might Change →
Anytime, I can find an article that is relevant and funny I always try to publish it. The following article adds some humor to possible changes in the funeral industry if certain companies got…
Undertakers 'Refusing Funerals' Amid Unpaid Bills... →
Some bereaved families are being turned away by undertakers who fear bills will not be paid, the BBC has learned. The Citizens Advice Bureau highlighted the phenomenon. Britain’s funeral…
Napa Valley Funeral Home Closes, Owner Vows to... →
Napa Valley - Richard Pierce Funeral Home shut its doors late last month, bringing to a close a business that had been in the family for two generations. Owner Bob Pierce said that factors…
"Tears Are The Proof of Life" →
The following post was sent to me in an email by fellow ConnectingDirectors.com member Randy Mccormick. In the email Randy sent he writes this:
The following is an excerpt from the…
New Burr Oak Burials Turning Up Old Caskets →
Since the embattled Burr Oak Cemetery quietly resumed burials this fall, grave diggers in three separate cases have broken ground on what they thought were new plots — only to discover they…
Jim Cramer of CNBC Show "Mad Money" Says No to SCI... →
Tuesday Cramer received a rather macabre trading idea from one viewer: “In 2010, the estate tax will be completely eliminated. However in 2011, the estate tax will jump back up to 55%. With that…
Lawsuit: Funeral Home Wouldn't Adjust Body in... →
Chicago - A Hammond man has filed suit against a South Side funeral home, saying he was forced to reposition the body of his brother-in-law inside a coffin after funeral workers refused to do it…
Cremation Rate Exceeded Record 60 Percent in Korea →
More than 60 percent of the dead were cremated last year, a record high in Korea, the Health, Welfare and Family Affairs Ministry said yesterday. Cremation accounted for how 61.9 percent of…
The Way We Deal With Death - Audio Podcast →
The following link is for an NPR broadcast that was very thought-provoking. The podcast is about the way we deal with death and the dead. Throughout the podcast they ask random people what they…
Cremation Not Green Enough? Try Bio-Cremation.. →
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Worried you haven’t been green enough in life? Don’t let death come in the way of a more eco-friendly you. From coffins made of recycled cardboard to…
Chicago SCI Cemetery Operating Without Business... →
It has been six years since Toni Gonnigan’s oldest brother, Jerome, died. Since her brother’s burial at Oak Woods Cemetery, she has gone to the cemetery monthly to visit his grave. On Monday,…
Don't Forget to Read the Fine Print, Burial... →
Do you have burial insurance? Mr. Sims, a resident of Monroe, did. He bought it back in 1958. The policy cost one dollar and 38 cents per month. Mr. Sims paid on time, in full, for 20 years. The…
Va. Board Considers Changes to Funeral Regulations →
FALLS CHURCH, VA. — The board that oversees Virginia’s funeral services industry has proposed new regulations on the handling of human remains. The proposal is a response to allegations of…
Cemetery Uprooted To Make Way For Shopping Center →
Chattanooga, TN - Dozens of graves are uprooted to make way for a retail shopping center. We started receiving phone calls from viewers several weeks ago about a construction site on the corner…
Just 21, This Funeral Director is 'In it For Life' →
Just 18 years old in 2006, Mr Nicky Teo Chin Li coordinated his first funeral. It was a day he will always remember. ‘The deceased had died suddenly from a heart attack. When the body came back…
Funeral Homes Feel Economy’s Bite →
DANVILLE — Grief and a “Payment Due” notice are the only real inescapable parts of death and taxes. Area funeral directors say the troubled economy has customers reassessing how much they can…
State Warns Consumers of Prepaid Funeral Scams →
Five years after Florence Muto prepaid for a funeral in 2004, the 92-year-old from Westland is out the $6,000 she paid for the plan. Muto was part of a group of 60 families authorities say were…
What Happens to Your Email After You Die? →
This article is not directly funeral related but it is a question that could get asked to the funeral director at some point. You yourself my be wondering the answer as well. You someone who…