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When most people die, they are either cremated or buried in a cemetery plot. While headstones can be expensive (anywhere from $250-$6,000) your standard marker has nothing on these 5 extravagant gravesites.

Marjorie Merriwether Post

Marjorie Merriwether Post was one of the wealthiest women of the 20th century. She inherited much of her wealth from the Post Cereal company and continued to acquire food brands to build her wealth. Marjorie was a collector and loved to surround herself with rare and expensive works of art and historical artifacts. After her death in 1973, Marjorie was cremated and her ashes were placed in an urn carved from rare purple porphyry. Her urn is sat high atop a marble pillar in the garden of her Washington D.C. home and can be visited by anyone who visits the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens. The base of the pillar is carved with her coat of arms and the Latin phrase “In me mea spes omnis” which translates to “all my hopes rest in me.” The urn overlooks the estate and the graves of all of her pets buried nearby. 

The Davis Memorial

In the Mount Hope Cemetery in Hiawatha, Kansas sits a massive Tomb. The memorial was built by John Milburn Davis for Sarah Hart Davis who was his wife of 50 years. After she died in 1930, John Davis placed a simple gravestone to mark where she was laid to rest. He decided it wasn’t enough and commissioned a local monument dealer named Horace England to continue to make the gravesite more extravagant. John spent 7 years and almost all of his wealth adding 11 Italian marble life size statues of him and his wife, stone urns, a solid marble canopy, and a marble and granite wall surrounding the grave. 

Image: Kansastravel.org

Fernand Arbelot

Very little is known about musician and actor Fernand Arbelot, but his grave has drawn visitors from all over the world. Located in Paris’ Pere LAchaise Cemetery, Fernand is sculpted laying down and holding up the disembodied face of his wife. The epitaph on the grave says “Ils furent emerveilles du beau voyage qui les mean jusq'au buot de la vie” which translates in English to “They marveled at the beauty of the journey that brought them to the end of life.” The monument was designed by Belgian sculptor Adolphe Wansart and installed in 1946, 4 years after Fernand’s death. Nobody knows the name or place of burial of his wife. 

Image: serafinamia on Findagrave

Nicholas Cage

Although actor Nicholas Cage is not yet deceased, he is planning on resting in style in a 9 foot tall stone pyramid mausoleum.The actor purchased 2 plots in the St. Louis Cemetery in New Orleans and had the pyramid built in one of them. The cemetery is where New Orleans Voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau is laid to rest, whose historic home is also owned by Cage. The tomb stands in stark contrast to the crumbling mausoleums around it. Inscribed on its’ front is the latin phrase “Omnia Ab Uno” which translates to “Everything From One.”. The actor has not commented on why his future grave is styled how it is, but several rumors have circulated that it is an homage to the movie “National Treasure” which he starred in. 

Image: Britt Reints

The Panteon De Oriente Cemetery

Located in Durango, Mexico this cemetery also functions as a museum that displays hundreds of unique tombs sculpted by quarry master Benigo Montoya from 1898 to 1929. Each one of the over 300 gravestones and chapels sculpted by Montoya are unique. He was known for sculpting realistic angels in the likenesses of people buried there. Along with beautiful gravestones, he also sculpted chapels that hold Durango’s most wealthy 19th century families. These ornate chapels have their own symbolism and ornamentation that symbolizes the families buried within them.   

The current Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all of us in so many ways, one of them being funerals. Since large groups and travel have been discouraged, being able to go to the funeral of a loved one isn’t always a possibility during this time. It can be difficult to find ways to come together with friends and family to celebrate the life of those that have passed, but we hope that this list can give you some ideas.

Make a Tribute Video Together on Tukios

One of the easiest ways to get family and friends involved in a virtual memorial is to create a tribute video together. With the family upload feature, everyone can upload their favorite photos and videos of your loved one to share with everyone. When it’s finished, have a watch party on Zoom for everyone to enjoy the video together.

Create a Playlist of their Favorite Songs Together

Music is a wonderful way to bring people together and to bring back memories of a loved one. Collaborate with family and friends to gather songs that the deceased loved and put them together into a playlist on a platform like Spotify or Apple Music. The playlist can be revisited for years to come.

Cook their Favorite Meal

Whether you’re using an old family recipe or learning how to make a new dish, cooking can help you celebrate and feel close to your loved one. Gathering the ingredients and taking the time into turning them into a special meal to enjoy with people in your household is a simple way to have a memorial. If cooking isn’t your thing, ordering their favorite meal to-go and celebrate while also supporting a local restaurant.

Have a Movie Night with their Favorite Movies 

In a previous blog post we highlighted some do it yourself urns that are not only personal, but beautiful to display. Here are 5 more ideas that you can use for the cremains of a loved one. 

Nesting Doll

Matryoshka dolls, or Russian nesting dolls, are a beautiful way to store cremains. You can either find a set that is already painted or purchase a kit with blank dolls that you can paint yourself to resemble your loved one. 

Photo by miram Oh on Unsplash

Piggy Bank

Piggy banks come in all kinds of novelty shapes and designs, so why not use one as an urn? Just be sure to seal the coin slot with a piece of heavy duty tape or some caulk. 

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

Perfume Bottle

Scent is one of the most powerful senses tied to memory so celebrate a loved one’s signature scent by using an empty bottle of their favorite perfume or cologne as an urn. 

Photo by Nadia Cortellesi on Unsplash

Hollowed out Book

If your loved one was a reader and you love a crafting project, you can get a hardback copy of their favorite novel and hollow out the pages to create a hidden compartment that you can use as an urn. It’s a meaningful, unique, and discreet way to display cremains. 

Photo by Artsy Vibes on Unsplash

Bullet Casing

If your loved one was an avid hunter, dividing their ashes into some empty bullet casings would be a unique way to honor their memory. It’s also a great way to divide ashes among multiple people. The casings can be displayed by themselves or stored in a keepsake box.

Flowers in an Urn 

Flowers are a classic Valentine’s day gift and you can add a fun funeral director twist by gifting them in a cremation urn instead of a vase. You can even research the meanings of flowers like lilies, carnations, and roses to personalize the bouquet.

Image: Amazon

Teddy Bear

If your loved one is into stuffed animals, this teddy bear is an adorable way to let them know how loved they are. 

Image: Ebay

Chocolate Coffin 

Who doesn’t love receiving a box of chocolates? This morbid box of chocolates from Burdick Chocolate is the perfect way to satisfy any funeral director’s sweet tooth. 

Image: Burdick Chocolate

Anatomical Heart Jewelry

Instead of heart shaped jewelry that’s traditionally gifted on Valentine’s Day, anatomical heart jewelry is a unique way to express your love. 

Image: PrettyTwistedJewelry

Mug 

If you prefer to give more practical gifts, a coffee mug like this one will remind them of you every time they take a sip. Fill it with chocolates or a miniature bouquet for some extra Valentine’s Day flair.

Not only are we ringing in a new year, but we are welcoming a new decade! Things like fashion and media have trends, but so does the funeral industry. While traditional embalming and cremation have remained popular throughout the last 50 years every decade has had a myriad of different products and practices.  Here is a look back through the decades and the funeral trends that defined them.

1890s

Victorian Era funerals had many customs to be followed. After a loved one passed away, the family would lay them out in the home where they would peacefully lay to be viewed by all. In the opulent Victorian style, flowers were placed around the body to make it look more natural and peaceful.  Black fabric tied with white ribbon would be hung on the door to signify that there was a dead body in the home. As a precursor to today’s published obituaries, the Victorians would put a death notice in the newspaper. Funerals were held in the home and then 6-8 pall-bearers would carry the coffin to a horse drawn hearse.

One of the most unique funeral traditions of Victorian funerals were the clothing and mourning practices. Widows would wear a heavy black veil over their faces for a year and black mourning clothing for two years. Widowers would wear black suits, gloves, neckties, and hats for one year. Once the years of mourning have ended, widows and widowers could choose to remain in mourning clothes for the rest of their life, or make the gradual transition into wearing brighter colors and patterns that were fashionable for the time.

Image: Victorian-era.org

1930s

During America’s Great Depression, funerals started to transform from community based funerals into what we would recognize as a traditional funeral today. Since families moved around a lot to look for work and housing, the rural sense of community was lost. Time spent working to provide meant that there wasn’t time to build a coffin for a deceased loved one or be responsible for the body and a home funeral. This also coincided with concerns that dead bodies were a threat to public health. Because of this, funerals were entrusted to an undertaker to provide the sense of a community funeral without the family needing to spend valuable time and resources on it. 

Image: Wikipedia Commons

1970s

Funerals in the 1970s looked a lot like traditional funerals we see today, but with some differences in the industry. Cremations started to slowly gain more popularity with the beginning of the 1970s having a 4% rate of cremation that rose to nearly 10% by the 1980s. For people that were choosing not to be cremated, a metal casket was the popular choice, accounting for two-thirds of caskets produced during the decade. Hearses stopped being used as ambulances because standard emergency medical services were put into place. One of the biggest differences in the industry is that  almost all funeral homes were independently owned and operated, while nearly 14% are owned by publicly traded corporations today. 

Image: Cadillacdatabase.org

2010s

Funerals of the 2010s have been defined by change and innovation. New technologies like aquamation are gaining popularity alongside older traditions like green burials and home funerals. Cremains no longer just go in traditional urns, but are turned into display pieces with sentimental value. There is more emphasis placed on environmentally friendly services than in decades past. 

Even with new trends emerging, the traditional side of the funeral industry has also experienced growth. The funeral industry is a 20.7 billion dollar industry and there are an estimated 2.4 million funerals a year in the united states. 41% of Americans are opting for cremations are opposed to burial in a cemetery. With 76 million Americans being older than 60, it’s expected that the funeral industry will continue to grow and change over the decade to come.

There are many options on the market for urns, but maybe you want something more unique or personal that can be put on display instead of being stowed away in a closet. Here is a list of 5 urns you can make yourself.

Teapot

If your loved one was an avid tea drinker, or a lover of vintage objects, a teapot could make a great urn! Pick out the perfect teapot and use a piece of strong tape on the inside to block off the spout. Then the ashes can be added to the inside. You can optionally seal the lid to the top of the pot with some superglue. 

Photo by Richard Iwaki on Unsplash

Wooden Box

If you’re handy with tools, making a wooden box for the cremated remains of your loved one is a meaningful option. Whether you source the wood from a local hardware store or from a backyard tree, being able to craft a handmade vessel for your loved one is . If you need a place to start, check out a step by step tutorial like this one by Fine Woodworking.

Wine bottle

If a loved one had a favorite wine or liquor, why not store their ashes in that bottle? Take an empty bottle, add the ashes inside and replace the cork. If you want an extra personal touch, you can make a custom label to further memorialize your loved one. 

Photo by Cristina Iulia on Unsplash

Potted Plant

If your loved one had a green thumb, what better way to memorialize them than with one of their favorite plants? Choose a plant, and repot it into soil with a little bit of ashes mixed in. If you aren’t confident that the plant will stay alive, you can put the ashes into a small container and bury it in the soil alongside the plant. 

Photo by Galina N on Unsplash

Stuffed Animal

Put some ashes into a small, tightly sealed container like a small jar. Carefully cut open the back of the stuffed animal and nestle the ashes in the stuffing. Stitch the seam closed and the stuffed animal is ready to be put on display.

Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash

There are many ways to customize you or a loved one’s funeral. From the music, to the flowers, to the tribute video, everything is chosen to reflect whose funeral it is. Shouldn’t that be the case with the casket too? If you’re looking for something a little more unique than a wooden or metal casket, one of these 5 casket makers could be for you.

Glitter Coffins

The Glitter Coffin Company is a UK based business that will build you a beautiful, hand upholstered coffin that is encrusted with glitter. Each coffin is made to order and can be made with one of 18 beautiful glitter colors. The glitter is placed on a 100% biodegradable cotton backing and made with a non Chlorinated Plastic, so they can be used for both burial and cremation. 

Image Glitter Coffin Company

Image Wrapped Coffins

If you want a coffin that is covered in a beautiful photo, Expression Coffins will flawlessly wrap the coffin with an image of your choice. They have several categories to choose from, or you can create a completely custom coffin using up to 6 of your own images. Expression Coffins will plant a tree for every coffin purchased to offset the materials used.

Image ExpressionCoffins

Burial Pods

We’ve all seen urns that mix cremated ashes with soil to grow a tree, but what if you could skip the cremation step? Capsula Mundi is a project that will bury a departed person in a biodegradable egg shaped pod with a tree placed on top of the pod so the tree can serve as a memorial for many lifetimes to come. 

Image Capsula Mundi

Car Caskets

For the car lover in your life, check out Cruisin Caskets. They will custom fabricate a casket to look like a retro car. The car opens with a hinge top like a traditional casket and is fabricated with fiberglass and can be painted in a variety of colors and designs. They can also be customized with white wall tires and gold or chrome rims.

Image Cruisin Caskets 

Crazy Coffins

If you want something truly unique and custom, Crazy Coffins can make your wildest design dreams come true. They’ve built coffins shaped like boats, guitars, ballet shoes, cars, and more. Each creation is completely handmade from sustainable wood by their talented team of artists.

With NFDA just around the corner, funeral directors from all over the world will be flocking to Chicago. While there is a lot to do and see at the convention, what about after the floor closes? If you’d like to keep in the funeral spirit, then here are 5 death-care sightseeing locations you could check out on your trip.

Graceland Cemetery and Arboretum

The Graceland Cemetery is a unique and beautiful park-like cemetery located in Northern Chicago. The cemetery houses the gravesites of some of Chicago’s most famous architects and is full of grand monuments in their honor. Walking through the over 2,000 trees in the cemetery you’ll see everything from ordinary headstones to intricately designed mausoleums. Graceland is over 150 years old and is still an active cemetery and arboretum.

The cemetery is also home to the grave of Inez Clark. The monument is a statue of a little girl with a parasol sat atop a pedestal and encased in glass. It is rumored that during the night, the statue will leave her pedestal during the night and explore the cemetery. Security guards and tour bus drivers have reported the missing statue since the 1980s. 

Image: Graceland Photo Gallery

Couch Tomb

Lincoln Park in Chicago is a popular space for tourists and locals alike, but did you know that it was a public cemetery in the 1800s? The last reminder of its past is the Couch Tomb. Ira Couch was a businessman from New York. He moved to Chicago with his brother in 1836 and made his money owning hotels. He commissioned architect John M. Van Osdel to design a mausoleum to be placed in the Chicago City Cemetery. Ira Couch died in 1857 and was buried in the tomb, along with an unknown number of his other family members.

In 1860, Chicago City Cemetery became a public park and families were told to relocate the graves of their loved ones to a new cemetery. All of the graves were cleared from the land, except for the Couch Tomb. It’s likely that moving the giant marble crypt would take too much effort to move, so Ira Couch remains in his final resting place to this day. 

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Bohemian National Cemetery

The Bohemian National Cemetery is a small, but beautiful cemetery located in the north of Chicago. The cemetery features a large gatehouse at the entrance, a glass fronted-columbarium, and several war memorials on its grounds. It also features a memorial for the victims of the SS Eastland disaster of 1915, where 844 passengers died when the ship rolled over in the Chicago River. 

 It was established in 1877 by the Czech Catholic community after a woman named Marie Silhanek was refused burial in other Catholic cemeteries in Chicago. Outraged, her community purchased 50 acres of land and started their own. In the nearly 150 years it has been operating, it has grown to be 126 acres. 

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Rosehill Cemetery and Civil War Museum

Rosehill Cemetery was founded in 1859 and is Chicago’s largest cemetery. It covers over 350 acres and is filled with Victorian style monuments. Walking around the graves you’ll see obelisks, ornate urns, arches, and wrought iron gates.

The cemetery also contains a small museum inside of the administration building dedicated to the gravesites of Civil War soldiers. Fourteen Union generals, six drummer boys, and hundreds of soldiers. The museum features exhibits about those that are buried in Rosehill Cemetery and Chicago’s role in the Civil War. 

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium

If you are interested in recent medical history, the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium should be on your list. Opened in 1915, this 160 acre site was the largest sanitarium in the country. There were 32 buildings and room for 650 TB patients. Because tuberculosis is a highly infectious and deadly disease, the sanitarium functioned like a city for the patients that lived there. It offered education, religious services, recreation, and even had a maternity ward.

The hospital's philosophy was that fresh air and light would help treat the sick, so there were plenty of windows and lots of outdoor activities. It was not  The Sanitarium closed in 1974 after the advent of effective medicines and vaccines. After its closing, the land around it became the North Park Village Center which has public park space, housing for the elderly, and a nature preserve.

When a beloved pet passes away, there are a few options for their final resting place. People often choose to cremate their animals, place them in a local pet cemetery, or bury them in the backyard. Have you ever wondered about some of the more unique options available? Here is a list of 4 ways to bury your pet in style.

Pet Mummification

If you want a unique and historically inspired end for your pet, you can get them mummified at the Summum Pyramid in Salt Lake City, Utah. Once your beloved pet is delivered to their facility, their Thanatogeneticists will begin the mummification process. They start by treating the body with oil and wrapping it in cloth. For 5-10 months they continue to use their modern mummification techniques until the body is preserved. It is then placed inside a unique bronze mummiform and returned to the owner. Mummification can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $28,000 depending on the size of the pet, and the bronze mammiform can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 depending on the bronze finishes and custom work.

Image: Vincent

Eternal Reefs

If you want an environmentally friendly way to inter your pet, an eternal reef could be the solution for you. Eternal reefs take the cremated remains of pets and people and mix them into an environmentally safe concrete. The concrete is molded into a shape designed to recreate natural reef formations to facilitate the growth of coral and fish habitats. The family of your pet can come and help mix the ashes into the cement, add handprints, messages, and small mementos like a dog tag or favorite treats. The reefs are placed on reef sites that are designated for fishing and diving, so you can dive down and visit your pet’s reef anytime you want. Eternal reefs have been placed off the coasts of Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia. The reefs cost $4,000 to $7,500 depending on the size of memorial you choose.

Image Eternal Reef

Pet Diamond

One way to keep your pet close to you at all times is to transform their ashes into a beautiful diamond ring. LifeGem is a company that takes the carbon from cremated remains and refines them into a beautiful stone. Once LifeGem has the cremains, they heat them to a high temperature to convert the carbon into graphite. The graphite is then placed inside of a diamond press which replicates the pressure and heat that happens within the earth to create a raw diamond. Then the diamond is given to their skilled diamond cutters and cut to your specifications and certified for authenticity. The diamonds come in a variety of colors, carats, cuts, and sizes. The price ranges from $2,500-$25,000 depending on how many carats you want your gem to have.

Image Life Gem

Freeze Dry Taxidermy

If burial or cremation isn’t for you and you’d rather keep your pet in your sights, freeze dry taxidermy could be. Freeze drying your pet is different than traditional taxidermy because it’s less invasive and creates a more realistic looking end result. Freeze drying uses a process called lyophilization that gently freezes the animal and uses a vacuum to extract the water vapor. The process generally takes around 2 to 4 months to complete and your pet can be positioned any way you want.

Memorial products and funerals have changed a lot in the past 20 years. With the advent of the internet, it’s even easier to get unique and meaningful memorial products. But 200 years ago people did things a little differently. Here’s a look at five weird vintage funeral products.

Safety Coffin

Taphophobia is the fear of being buried alive and prior to modern medicine it was something that people were genuinely concerned about. There have been accounts of people being buried alive since the 14th century. Edgar Allen Poe even wrote about this fear in his short story called “Premature Burial,” where a narrator makes his friends promise to not bury him prematurely and builds a tomb that gives him the ability to signal for help.

In 1868, the first patent for an “Improved Burial-Case” was granted to Franz Vester. His invention included a ladder so the person could escape and a bell to alert those around the grave in case the person was too weak to climb out. There was also an air inlet so in case someone was accidentally buried prematurely, they wouldn’t suffocate inside of their casket.

Franz Vester Patent

Hair Jewelry

When Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert died in 1861, she publicly mourned him until she died 40 years later. Part of her mourning was wearing a lock of her husband’s hair in a necklace. She greatly influenced the customs for grieving women during the era. In the United States, women started getting more creative with the hair from deceased loved ones. 

People made wreaths, rings, necklaces, and more out of human hair. There were even books written to instruct people at home how to do hairwork. Often hair from the living and the dead would be woven and braided together into complex flowers and vines. Since most Victorians held their funerals in the home and were close to their dead, it wasn’t seen as morbid to snip a lock of hair from the deceased. Hairwork went out of fashion in the 1920s with the advent of funeral homes.

O. Henry Museum in Austin Texas

Mortsafes

People that lived in Scotland in the early 19th century had to take some extra precautions to make sure their loved ones stayed resting in peace. Before 1832, the only way for anatomists to obtain cadavers to study was to use the bodies of executed criminals donated by the government. These bodies were still difficult to obtain because the public was largely opposed to dissection. Because of the shortage, students turned to buying recently deceased corpses that were dug up and sold by body snatchers.

Residents of Edinburgh took protecting their deceased loved ones by investing in “mortsafes.” These could be a heavy stone table, a concrete box, or even an iron cage surrounding the burial site. Communities also created watch groups to monitor graveyards at night. The need for mortsafes stopped when the Anatomy Act was passed in 1832 which made it legal for anatomists to obtain cadavers. Several intact mortsafes can still be seen in old church cemeteries around Scotland.

Mortsafe at Greyfriars Cemetery

Airtight Coffin

In 1848 a man named Almond Fisk patented a design for a coffin that was unusual to say the least. The ”Fisk Airtight Coffin of Cast or Raised Metal” was an ornate cast-iron coffin that was made for transporting corpses and to keep from spreading diseases like yellow fever or cholera. The coffin was often decorated with roses, angels, and thistles overtop of an iron shroud. Fisk hoped that his design would lessen “the disagreeable sensation produced by the coffin on many minds.”

Unfortunately for Fisk, people found the coffins to be creepy. A window was added to the top of the case so mourners could look at the face of the departed which didn’t make them any less unsettling. People nicknamed the coffins “Fisk Mummies” since they were reminiscent of ancient Egyptian sarcophagi. On top of people not liking how they looked, they were also prone to exploding. As the corpse would decay, pressure would build inside of the iron coffin, causing them to burst. The exploding was reported on by the Chicago Press in 1858 and refuted by the manufacturers of Fisk’s Metallic Burial Case in the New York Times. Production stopped on the coffins in 1860 and are an incredibly rare find.

“Fisk Mummy” in the Memphis Pink Palace Museum

Death Masks

Death Masks were first made by the ancient Egyptians and Africans as a spiritual ritual. They became memorials of the dead in the middle ages. They started to grow in popularity in the late 19th century after a mask was made from a woman that had drowned from the Seine River in Paris. 

Death masks are made a few hours after death so that post-mortem bloating didn’t interfere with the mask. A physician would grease the face to keep the skin and facial hair intact and then cover the face in plaster bandages to make a mold. After the plaster had set, the mold was removed and filled with wax or clay, metal, or plaster. 

This Independence Day we want to spotlight 5 hometown veteran memorials. It’s a meaningful and powerful experience to be able to visit a memorial dedicated to your own community and the sacrifices that have been made.

Maryhill Stonehenge Memorial, Washington

Dedicated in 1918, Maryhill Stonehenge was the first WWI memorial erected in the United States. The memorial was built to honor the 14 men from Klickitat County, Washington who died while serving. The Maryhill Museum of Art continues to honor the soldiers who served by holding small ceremonies on the anniversary of their deaths.

Image: Maryhill Museum

Living Memorial Sculpture Garden California

Located off of Highway 97 in Northern California, the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden is a veterans memorial unlike any other. The park is filled with giant sculptures dedicated to showcasing the effects of war. The garden path opens with a large wall covered in the names of California veterans. They add more names to the wall every year. From the wall, the path goes on for another quarter mile and leads to 10 powerful sculptures. There are memorials dedicated to WWII nurses, the Korean War, POWs, and more.

Image: vva.org

Anthem Veterans Memorial, Arizona

The Anthem Veterans Memorial is a unique sculpture that you can only fully experience for one minute out of the year. The monument consists of 5 pillars, each one representing a branch of the military. The pillars are lined up in such a way that On November 11 at 11:11 a.m., the sun shines through them and reveals the seal of the United States on the ground.

Image: Anthem Community Council 

Window Rock Navajo Memorial Park, Arizona

Window Rock Park was established in 1936 near the Navajo Nation headquarters. It sits underneath a beautiful red sandstone arch. The Veterans Memorial was established in 1995 to honor the Navajo Code Talkers that had a pivotal role in WWII. The memorial features a statue of a Code Talker with a 32-pound radio, 16 steel pillars inscribed with the names of veterans, and a healing sanctuary.

Image: Discover Navajo

Healing Field, Kentucky

Located in Lawrence, Kentucky the Healing Field is a living memorial dedicated to the Kentuckians that have lost their lives to the war on terror. There are currently 118 flags flying with a memorial plaque for each service member. 

Image: Visit Lawrence

Have you ever wondered what famous people did before their rise to stardom? Did any of those celebrities work in deathcare? Here are five celebrities who have ties to the funeral industry.

The Bachelor’s Shawntel Newton

Shawntel Newton was the fourth place finalist on season 15 of The Bachelor, but did you know that she’s also a funeral director? Shawntel took bachelor Brad Womack to her family’s funeral home in Chico California for her hometown date. "I love my job for many reasons, but mostly because it combines my three passions," she said. "Science, psychology, and caring for the elderly, because so many of the family members are older."

Image People Magazine

Angelina Jolie

When actress Angelina Jolie was young, she had a different career path in mind. After the passing of her grandfather, she dropped out of her early acting classes and started taking study-at-home embalming courses.

"If this whole acting thing didn't work out that was going to be my path," Jolie said. "It sounds like this very strange, eccentric, dark thing to do but in fact I lost my grandfather and was very upset with his funeral," how somebody passes and how family deals with this passing and what death is should be addressed in a different way.

Image biography

Danny DeVito

Danny DeVito is best known for his roles in Matilda and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but did you know he got his start as a hairdresser? When he was 19 years old, his sister offered him a job working in her salon and paid for him to go to beauty school.

Since he was one of the only men in town, he would often get called by local mortuaries to set mostly old women’s hair. “I would style their hair the way, you know you do normal hair, it’s just that the person never talked back.” He recalled.

Image: Pinterest

John Conlee

When you think of John Conlee, you may think of his country music hit Rose Colored Glasses. What you may not know is that he got his start as a funeral director. Conlee practiced for six years at Versailles’ Duell-Clark Funeral Chapel in Kentucky.

“I think I learned more about people doing that than maybe I could have any other way.” He said about his time in the funeral industry. ”I think it’s contributed to my view of life. I know it has. I wouldn’t trade that experience for a couple of college degrees. You couldn’t learn in the classroom what I learned helping people through those tough times.”

Image: John Conlee

Caitlin Doughty

http://caitlindoughty.com/about

Caitlyn Doughty isn’t just a celebrity with ties to the funeral industry, being a funeral director is how she became famous in the first place. She began posting videos to her YouTube channel in 2011 where she answered questions about being a funeral director and other death-related topics. The channel now has over 200 videos and has exceeded 700,000 subscribers.

Doughty owns her own nonprofit funeral home in Los Angeles and wrote the New York Times best-seller Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. She also speaks regularly about death culture, the funeral industry, and death activism.

We’ve all heard about the acts of notorious criminals, but have you ever wondered what happened to them after they died? These are the final resting places of 5 notorious criminals.

Al Capone

The best-known gangster of the 20th century controlled organized crime in Chicago from 1925-1931. He ran gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging operations and would take out rival gangs by any violent means necessary. He was indicted and convicted of income tax evasion by the federal government and sent to prison in 1931. 

Capone died in his Miami home in 1947 from a heart attack caused by late-stage Syphilis. He was initially buried in the Mount Olive Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois, but was exhumed and transferred to Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery.

Find a Grave

Charles Manson

Charles Manson was the leader of a death cult in the 1960s. He believed that the upcoming apocalypse would cause a race war between black and white people called “Helter Skelter.” He orchestrated several high profile murders to frame the African-American community and had his followers carry out the murders.

Manson died in November of 2017 in a state hospital in Bakersfield California. Several people came forward to claim the body, including a man that said he was Manson’s illegitimate son, and another man that produced a fake will. A California judge awarded Charles Manson’s grandson the right to the body. An open casket funeral was held four months later which was followed by cremation and scattering Manson’s ashes.

LA Times 

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald was the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. He was shot to death two days after the assassination by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Oswald was being transferred to the Dallas County Jail.

Oswald was buried at a cemetery in Fort Worth Texas, but that wasn’t the end of his story. His remains were exhumed in 1981 to prove that his body was actually buried there due to conspiracy theories that claimed he was still alive. Authorities were able to use dental records to prove that the body belonged to Kennedy’s assassin. Oswald was reburied at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth, but his original casket was auctioned to an anonymous bidder for $87,500 in 2011.

Fort Worth Star Telegram

Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy was a notorious serial killer that was active from 1974 to 1978. Bundy targeted and killed young women in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, and Florida. He confessed to 28 murders, but many believe he was responsible for hundreds of deaths.

Bundy was executed by electrocution in 1989 at a Florida prison. His remains were cremated and there was no public funeral. He requested that his ashes be scattered to the winds over the Cascade Mountains in Washington.

Jim Jones

Jim Jones was the founder and leader of The People’s Temple. The cult began in the 1950s and by 1976 had amassed 1,000 members. Jones relocated himself and his followers to Guyana, to create a utopia in the Jungle. Jones claimed that he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and that he could cure heart disease and cancer.

Although Jones’ was praised for creating a society of racial equality and justice for the impoverished, members reported beatings, death threats, and other cult-like control tactics. Jones would often test members’ loyalty by calling on members to practice mass suicide at all hours. This all culminated in 1978 when Jones murdered 914 of his followers by ordering them to drink Kool-aid laced with cyanide. Many people who would not drink the poison were shot or given a lethal injection. Jones died by gunshot while sitting at his desk and had enough phenobarbital in his system to kill a normal person. Jim Jones’s body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.

With ICCFA just around the corner, you may be wondering what you can do in Charlotte while you aren’t attending the show. If you want to stay in the funeral spirit, we have some death care related attractions that you can check out during your stay.

Old Settlers’ Cemetery

Old Settlers’ Cemetery was the first municipal cemetery in Charlotte. Although it was designated as a cemetery in 1815, it has graves dating all the way back to 1776. The site is home to graves of Civil War and Revolutionary War veterans, as well as the founders of Charlotte and Mecklenburg.

If you’re looking for significant graves, you can check the map at the entrance, or just wander through the crumbling grave markers.

Wikimedia commons

Historic Hovis Funeral Home

On Charlotte's historic Tyron Street, sits one of Charlotte’s first funeral homes. The Hovis Funeral Home was completed in 1925 and was designed by Charlotte architect William Peeps. Peeps drew his style from Gothic Revival architecture, which gives the building a unique and somber look.

The building now serves as office space, but if you’re into historic funeral home architecture, it makes for a great photo opportunity.

Charlotte Landmark Commission

Hilton Sisters’ Grave

Daisy and Violet Hilton were born joined at the hip in Brighton England in 1908. They were sold to Mary Hilton who immediately put them on display. They spent the majority of their young lives performing in the vaudeville circuit until they sued for their freedom in 1931. They remained in the entertainment industry for the rest of their lives, but finally on their own terms.

The twins died in 1969 from the Hong Kong flu and are laid to rest in the Forest Lawn, West Cemetery in Charlotte. An unassuming headstone that is shared with a close family friend marks their place. You’d have no idea that the women buried beneath the headstone were stars of early American Vaudville entertainment.

Find a grave

Town Creek Indian Mound

If you are interested in pre-Colombian burial practices, the Town Creek Indian Mound Historic Site will fascinate you. The mound was discovered in the Pee Dee River Valley in 1937 and for over 50 years archaeologists have been finding artifacts and structures that belonged to the Pee Dee Indian Tribe dating as far back as the 11th century.

You can learn about the death rituals of the Pee Dee Tribe when you visit the restored burial house and mortuary structures. The visitor center is free and has self-guided tours around the mound and rebuilt structures, as well as interpretive exhibits and audiovisual programs.

Zachary Williams

Wanted to let you all know that we have updated a couple of the older themes. The Themes we have updated are:

Guitar

Rocky Beach

White Roses

#Theme Thursday: Italian Theme

Just in time to celebrate the Saints, this month's new theme is Italian: bit.ly/Tukios-Italian

Custom Themes are shared between users

Users that are tied to the same organization now share all of the custom themes. This is to ensure that the best themes you have created to fit your local needs gets shared within your organization

Updates to the Captions

The captions to the photos can be moved to either the top or bottom of the screen. You can also choose the font for the captions to better fit the images and personalities of those you serve

Smoother Transitions

Last, but certainly not least, we have been working on making the videos feel more interesting with new transitions and effects, as well as making those transitions smoother with the rending of the video.