Cemetery

Facebook group challenges StoneMor on cemetery operations

By Funeral Director Daily / April 24, 2019 /

A television news report and story from WSET out of Lynchburg, West Virginia, can be seen here and tells of a Facebook group that has garnered more than 600 followers that says that there is a problem with the way StoneMor Partners operates their cemeteries. Melissa Cash, whose father is buried at the Fort Hill…

What would you pay for a cemetery lot in Boston?

By Funeral Director Daily / April 16, 2019 /

The other day an article was published in Boston Magazine with the title, “Boston’s other Housing Crisis:  The Cemeteries”.  It is a full length feature article that gets into the costs associated with being buried at cemeteries inside the city of Boston as well as the options for burial in suburban and farther rural areas…

Newspaper alleges Chicago Archdiocese uses cemetery funds to pay abuse costs

By Funeral Director Daily / April 4, 2019 /

An article was published last weekend by the Chicago Sun-Times that questioned if money from the Archdiocese of Chicago cemetery operations was being diverted to pay down debt incurred because of priest misconduct cases.  You can read the article here. The Catholic Church in Chicago has for years said, according to the article,  that the…

Funeral up for Auction

By Funeral Director Daily / April 1, 2019 /

“We’re going to auction off a funeral that has been donated”, said Dick Crooks, Superintendent of Center Ridge Cemetery in Sullivan, Indiana. Crooks calls his auction night, “Indian’s Most Unusual Auction”. That’s right — in an article and television news story that you can see here out of Indiana, the Center Ridge Cemetery will be…

A canary in the coal mine

By Funeral Director Daily / March 22, 2019 /

Two readers sent me this article and news video from Minneapolis KARE 11 TV yesterday.  It concerns the 140 acre privately owned Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Washburn-McReavy Funeral Home business owns 16 funeral homes in the Minneapolis metropolitan area and also a few cemeteries, of which Crystal Lake Cemetery is one. Earlier…

Here is an idea for your cemetery to raise some revenue

By Funeral Director Daily / March 12, 2019 /

Back in the summer of 1991 I visited Europe and specifically, Germany, for the first time in my life.  There are a couple of things that I remember vividly from that experience.  First of all, I remember being served bottled water at dinner and then being charged for it.  Back home we were always afforded…

Decisions, decisions

By Funeral Director Daily / March 5, 2019 /

America has always been a country that practiced representative democracy according to our constitution and that type of government has never been as apparent as when I noticed two articles dealing with decisions at cemeteries, or potential cemeteries, of differing governmental levels. The first article I noticed comes to us in an article you can…

A little help for our Veterans

By Funeral Director Daily / January 30, 2019 /

Nothing earth shattering today, just a couple articles and information I noticed about America’s veterans and a notice from the Department of Veteran Affairs. One of the things we have written about on Funeral Director Daily is that with the growth of direct cremation there tends to be a few cremated remains that just never…

Making this Cemetery Great Again

By Funeral Director Daily / January 25, 2019 /

Even though this is a real news story with real valid reasoning for two people doing what they are doing, I had to chuckle just a tad when the on scene reporter started his report by saying, “These two guys are making this cemetery great again”. Regardless of your political persuasion, if you have not…

Interesting Ohio Cemetery Court Case

By Funeral Director Daily / January 22, 2019 /

Last week the trial of Karen Neff, a caretaker with her husband Keith Dwayne Baratie, Sr, of the Belmont Memorial Park Cemetery in Belmont County, Ohio, began.  Neff’s husband, and co-defendent, will have a separate trial beginning on February 7.  The couple is charged with forgery, aggravated theft and securing by deception.  According to the…