Article Category
Anna Wilbert Breaux
Fifth-generation Funeral Director Anna Wilbert Breaux has spent her life learning the funeral profession. As a youngster, her first classes were held around the dinner table when relatives came for...
Author-Undertaker | Todd Harra
“It’s such an honor to be able to walk with people during their time of need,” said Todd Harra, vice president of McCrery & Harra Funeral Homes and Crematory in Wilmington, Delaware. “But I...
Funetorium | All Things Funereal
Attila Bethlenfalvy stands out in a crowd of funeral directors. With his gauged ears, shaven head and bushy, peppered beard, Bethlenfalvy doesn’t look the part, and he’s not a funeral director,...
Thomas Lynch | Bringing the Living & the Dead Closer
Thomas Lynch is a man who needs no introduction. He’s well known—even famous, though he’d certainly argue that—in undertaking, poetic, and literary circles. Lynch won the American Book Award in 1998 for his breakout collection of essays, The Undertaking: Life Studies...
“Being There” | Robert Clint Walker
The alarm of the cellphone balanced on the dash rouses Clint Walker from an uncomfortable sleep. Brushing away empty coffee cups and food wrappers, Clint unfolds himself out of the pickup truck and zips his camouflage jacket against the icy wind blowing across the...
The Standard Cremation & Funeral Center | Anderson, South Carolina
All funeral directors have experienced “the call.” One presumption might define it as a specific experience that attracted an individual to serve in our sacred profession. However, another interpretation of the call, which is germane to this story, stems from the...
Kristin Tips | San Antonio, Texas
“Can you imagine a day when the world’s first drive-in funeral theater would be in the headlines? Or imagine a time when thousands of people at home would choose to watch a televised life tribute instead of attending a funeral service. That day is today and those...
A Man of Many Skills
Fountain National Academy of Professional Embalming SkillsSpringfield, Missouri The call came in from another state: an innocent bystander had been caught in the middle of a shootout. There would be reconstruction involved if there was to be a viewing. The funeral...
The NFDA Story
A BRIEF HISTORY OF NFDA SPANNING THREE CENTURIES Come, gather, come, gather, ye knights of the grave,A welcome awaits you right royally brave;Our fields they look fresh and our brooklets they smile,And the sweet-scented zephyrs, the senses beguile;The birds of the air...
Funereal Fridays
The Charleston Nine
Southern Mourning | from Southern Calls Issue 16, September 2017 (Opening Image: June 22, 2007 – Charleston 9 Firefighters ServicePresident, Mike McDaniel,1999-00 (head), President Thomas E. Baker...
Man O’ War’s Funeral
Southern Mourning | from Southern Calls Issue 9, September 2015 (Opening Image: As visitors look on, legendary thoroughbred Man O’ War lies in state in a casket lined with his racing colors at owner...
The Art of Undertaking
Here are three powerful images that I believe capture the essence of our beloved Profession - Mike Squires ABOVE: The Recessional | Mac Brown, Photography “Red clay fills the hole left in our...
Present Articles
COVID-19 in Rural Alabama
Everything’s changed. We’re now living in a world we didn’t expect a month ago, a week ago, or even yesterday. It’s a world of constant flux with changing mandates and directives coming from the...
Kobe Bean Bryant | Obsequies
AUGUST 23, 1978 – JANUARY 26, 2020 Only two months ago the news shocked the world, Kobe Bryant had been killed in a helicopter crash… those headlines, the outpouring of grief and the images from...
Billy Graham | Funeral & Eulogies
Leading up to the day of the funeral, feelings of anxiety and uncertainty abounded. Although receiving media passes for the visitation had been fairly streamlined and straightforward, obtaining...
Remembering Jacquelyn Taylor
In a career that came full-circle, the enduring and steadfast funeral service advocate was excited about the opportunity to continue her life’s work. But on August 10, 2018 Jacquelyn Taylor was diagnosed with breast cancer and on September 4, 2019 the cancer returned...
Fallen Heroes
Mississippi Funeral Directors Escort Fallen Heroes Late on the night of July 11, I received an unexpected call from Carson Sprow, president of International Mortuary Shipping. His company had been contacted to coordinate and oversee the transfer of the bodies of 15...
Remembering Mary Hagan
Though you may never been introduced, if you've attended NFDA's annual conventions over the last seven decades, her face will be familiar. And if you've had the privilege of meeting Mary Hagan, you'll never forget her charming smile, her keen wit and her unabashed...
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Past Articles
A Florida Undertaker’s Family Museum | Volume 11, March 2016
Take a step back in the life of an undertaker when you walk into Tommy Begg’s Funeral Museum in Madison, Florida. Visit the original coffin shop with boxes of original ornaments and hardware, his...
Presidential Passings | Eisenhower
The Solemn Journey to AbileneA Look Back at the Eisenhower Funeral Train By Bob Boetticher, Sr. Chairman, National Museum of Funeral History The first of an 8-Part Series focused on the History of...
Sunnyside Magazine, January 1900
This is "The Sunnyside," a magazine for the funeral industry, dated January 1st, 1900. It contains fabulous old ads for hearses, caskets, embalming fluid, etc. from advertisers such as National...
NFDA State Association Officers from 1900
Here's an interesting look back at the 1900 National Funeral Directors' Association roster of officers from the state associations. This comes from a point in history when there were only 45 states in the United States, and we were just 35 years removed from the Civil...
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