New Beginnings & Troubled Endings | 4M #258
Welcome to the two-hundred-and-fifty-seventh edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #258, kicking off the week with a taste of what happened. Lots of stuff this week, so we’re going to jump right in.
Check One Two. Hello?
Hi I’m Tony Russo, the new managing editor for ConnectingDirectors, and I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. I’m a veteran journalist who’s covered craft beer, returning combat veterans, cults, and (for the last four years) the funeral industry.
I started my career as an associate editor for Kates-Boylston Publications, where I ran Funeral Service Insider and founded FSI the Podcast. A little more than six months ago, I left to start On Deathcare, the industry newsletter, which I still publish.
When Ryan offered me this opportunity I was flattered, and following my predecessor Patricia Hartley’s announcement that I’d be sliding into her chair, I got a heartwarming number of congratulatory emails. As an aside, I’m so excited to see what she does at The Independent Funeral Group.
Over the next month or so there will be even more changes here, and I’ll share them as I’m able. For now, I want to let you know I take requests, so if there’s something you’re seeing too much of or not enough of, shoot me a note. Also (and I can’t stress this enough) if you’re an independent funeral home sending out a press release to your local media outlets about new programs or employees, etc. send it to me as well. Similarly, if you have a community event, shoot me some photos so I can share them with the group.
OK, let’s do this.
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Crossing the Wrong Guy
While an owner might occasionally let cemetery maintenance may slip, to let your cemetery become decrepit is unacceptable. To ignore funeral directors when they raise concerns is, at best, unwise. But to let a funeral director’s family mausoleum go downhill is courting disaster. Hillcrest Memorial Gardens and Sunset Memorial Gardens in Cleveland, Tennessee, did just that and called down the thunder in the personage of Ralph Buckner, Jr.
I actually tried to get in touch with Mr. Bucker for a story a couple of years ago. He had sold his business to a company that didn’t really do what he had hoped they would do and was asked to “step away.” Two years later they sued him claiming he overvalued the property by $9 million. He countered that they were just bad at the funeral business.
In fact, he started a new competing funeral home from scratch, but before he settled on a suitable place, he repurchased the original building (on Ralph Buckner Blvd.) when the people he’d sold it to when bust.
When Buckner couldn’t get the absentee owners of the cemetery to do the decent thing, he sent a missive to the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance detailing (with photos) the failing of Hillcrest Memorial Gardens and Sunset Memorial Gardens.
The filings highlight widespread maintenance neglect across both properties, including unkept lawns with knee-high grass obscuring headstones, degraded roadways, and uncollected trash. The complaints also raise concerns over operational practices, such as moving committal services away from actual grave sites and double-charging for grave openings. Furthermore, the report notes serious facility issues, including a long-disused air conditioning unit in a fully enclosed mausoleum housing dozens of entombed bodies.
For Buckner, the push for state intervention is both professional and personal. His deceased daughter and parents are entombed at Sunset Memorial Gardens, where a crypt marker fell and sustained damage late last year. Despite repeated requests, the marker has not been repaired or replaced, causing significant emotional strain during family visits.
Beyond his own family’s experience, Buckner emphasized that his primary goal is to advocate for all local families who have loved ones buried at these locations. He hopes the state regulatory agency will intervene promptly to enforce proper upkeep and fair service standards. Representatives for both cemeteries declined to comment on the allegations when contacted. However, Buckner indicated that he is prepared to move forward with a civil lawsuit against the property owners if these ongoing issues are not resolved. He owns the last property he sued. Maybe it’s time for the owner to grab a weed wacker and some repair tools and go do his job.
You can read the local media report here.
