everythingSG.com

(12-2001)
by Reno Kling

You know, of course, there's a great, rockin' band in heaven just waiting for you. So a Dayton, OH, man's final request was to be buried with his favorite Gibson SG. As the family filed past the casket, Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" was played in his honor.

Funeral directors recognize a movement to nontraditional burial including cremation. Indeed, golfers who have played their last earthly round can rest eternally in an urn in the shape of a golf bag. "We like to think families are like a snowflake or fingerprint; no two are alike," says Tommy Routsong of Dayton's Routsong Funeral Homes. "We try to customize each funeral to meet the family's need." Not only that, it's plain good business. "We've been around for fifty years and we want to comply with the wishes of our customers," Ralph Blye, funeral director at Smith Funeral Home says. "Everything is changing and we have to change with the time."

Can't you see and hear it now? "Dearly departed, we are gathered here together . . . ."