Welcome to the two-hundred-and-twenty-first edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #221, where we’ll serve up bite-sized, easily-digestible nuggets of the deathcare news you need to crush conversations in the week ahead. Bon appetit!
Put him in, coach
You might think that the funeral for a former U.S. president would feature only solemn hymns or classical music — but in actuality, presidents and their families often add their own personal touches to the musical selections. For example, Garth Brooks sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” at President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in January (much to the horror of some funeral purists). Recently, Jenna Bush Hager shared that her dad, George W. Bush has selected “Oh, Happy Day!” for his own funeral, replacing his former choice, “Centerfield” by John Fogerty.
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Whatever works
Most deathcare folks would probably agree that the average person could benefit from more education about death and funerals. But who’d expect that lesson to come from a professional wrestler? But that’s exactly how comedian Tony Hinchcliffe learned about the “concept” of death. “I learned about death from The Undertaker,” he said. “I had no idea what a coffin was or what a cemetery was, and then there I am, at six or seven years, and he’s building a coffin because he’s facing Kamala [at Survivor Series 1992]. So, I didn’t even know what a coffin was. There I am, a little kid, and I’m like, ‘Wait, what is he doing? He’s building this thing, and we get put in that when we die? And then you get put in dirt? Six feet in the ground?’ And I’m trying to put this all together.”
Discovery + DNA Doe Project = Arrest
DNA analysis and genetic genealogy have been a boon for law enforcement, especially when it comes to clearing cold cases. In 2021, those techniques helped the DNA Doe Project identify a skull found by Boy Scouts in 2002 as a 92-year-old woman who died in July 2001 and was thought to have been cremated. The investigation has led to the arrest of a former Minnesota funeral director who allegedly decapitated the corpse and threw the head in a ravine. He is also accused of “falsely billing the […] family for services, including a $2,700 ‘hair service’ allegedly performed by his wife, who did not work” at the funeral home. The man recently posted bond and will appear in court in February.
