Crist Mortuary Apologizes for Dropping Casket

Responding to a lawsuit’s allegations that Crist Mortuary employees dropped the casket of a 20-year-old Boulder High School graduate on the day of his funeral, letting his body roll onto the pavement, the mortuary’s general manager apologized. “We made a mistake,” said Michael Greenwood, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with [...]

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Has Batesville Been Lying About Casket Protection?

The economic state of our country is forcing many companies to diversify themselves into new products as well as new industries, and funeral industry companies have not been excluded from this diversification. Lets look at Batesville Casket company. In the last 12 months they have purchase a burial vault company, a funeral home website company, [...]

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Exclusive: First Look at Batesville’s Burial Vault Graveside Set Up

Last December we reported that Batesville Casket Company (parent company Hillenbrand) bought the Goria Burial Vault company. We also reported in July that Batesville ran job ads on CareerBuilder.com and in local Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky newspapers looking for Diver/Burial Vault Sales Representative, confirming speculation that Batesville was planning to service their own burial [...]

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Big 3 Casket Companies Being Sued, Creating a Monopoly?

This week a federal judge in Houston, Texas will determine whether the three biggest casket companies (Batesville, Aurora, and Matthews) are shirking FTC rules and creating a monopoly in the deathcare market according to recent audio from marketplace.publicradio.org. Bill Radke: Until the 1980s, a funeral home was the only place you could buy a casket. [...]

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Death Comes to The Shopping Mall, Hurts Funeral Homes

Casket stores have been popping up all over the country for the past few years. Out of all of the caskets stores I have been showed pictures or videos of, none were as impressive as this one. The following video was posted on the CDsocial Network by member Nathan Smith. Nathan recently traveled home to [...]

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Batesville Casket Raises Patent Infringement Claims

The biggest casket manufacturer in the country is hoping an investigation will close the lid on what it alleges is patent infringement by a Mexican importer. The United States International Trade Commission in Washington is investigating whether a company called Ataudes Aguilares of Guadalajara, Mexico, violated trade laws by importing knockoffs of casket designs patented [...]

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Batesville Getting Serious About Burial Vaults

It was announced a few months ago that Batesville purchased the intellectual properties of the burial vault portion of the Goria Corporation. It is obvious that Batesville is looking to other outlets to recoup some of the profit they are losing from dwindling casket sales. Not much has been said or heard from Batesville regarding their involvement [...]

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A Funny, Yet Moving Eulogy

Much like an obituary a eulogy should tell the story of someone’s life. A eulogy can be an extremely hard thing for someone to deliver, especially for a child or spouse. The following eulogy video was email to me by a member, and I found it very eye opening to how a eulogy could be give. [...]

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Stiffing the Dead: How the Pentagon Blew Memorial Day

Guest Post – Memorial Day is trumpeted as a day “to honor the memory of America’s Fallen.” But rather than live up to that lofty goal, the Pentagon routinely falls short, lapsing into cosmetic rituals and empty rhetoric with volleys of ceremonial gunshots followed by volleys of commemorative clichés. In public speeches, editorials and the [...]

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Aurora Acquires Canadian Casket Company

Aurora Casket Company, the largest family-owned funeral service supplier, has completed the acquisition of Canadian casket provider Alliance-St. Laurent Caskets. Based in New Brunswick, Canada, Alliance-St. Laurent will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Aurora, following the acquisition of the remaining 50 percent of the business. Aurora acquired a 50 percent share of [...]

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