Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska to Buried at Arlington National Cemetery-yourfuneralguy

Image  looking at Washington DC from Arlington National Cemetery-via Wikipedia

Senator Ted Stevens Alaska’s longest serving Senator will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery(ANC) On Tuesday Afternoon August 31st 2010.

The family announced the private  Burial Friday before noon-in the press- August 27th 2010. An associated press statement went out at 8:08 AM.

Snippet From Fox News.

….Sen. Ted Stevens will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., in a ceremony with relatives and friends.

In a statement Friday, the family said the decorated World War II pilot and president pro tempore of the Senate will be buried ….. with honors.

The 86-year-old Stevens was one of five people killed Aug. 9 in a plane crash while on a fishing trip near Dillingham in southwest Alaska.

via www.foxnews.com

Funeral Industry |Funeral News | Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Some reports have the burial happening on September 28th, 2010. We shall await clarification.

No word on whether there will be video coverage live or not.

This date is consistent with the general 4-8 week wait for a veterans burial at Arlington National Cemetery

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• Former Sen. Ted Stevens to be buried at Arlington (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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• Stevens to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery (cnn.com)
• Stevens to be buried at Arlington Cemetery (thehill.com)

Cemetery Gridlock Pushing cremation-YourFuneralGuy

Image by joiseyshowaa via Flickr

In New York City, There is cemetery Gridlock. Cemetery Gridlock is not often listed as a reason to do a fire a or green cremation.  There is space to bury the dead there and with what space there is it is quite expensive.

The answer around this issue is cremation and the in the future the answer may be fire cremation or green cremation by alkaline hydrolysis.

For the dead, however, virtually no amount of money will secure a final resting place in the heart of a city that is fast running out of graveyard space.

And in the parts of town where a burial plot is still available, the cost has in some cases more than tripled in less than a decade; aboveground mausoleums can fetch upward of $3 million. Cemeteries are scrambling to create more space, and as plot prices have soared, the number of cremations has also risen, with a quarter of New Yorkers choosing the less expensive alternative.

via www.nytimes.com

Funeral industry|Funeral news| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral guy

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• Cemetery Crowding: Grave Concern: The High Cost of Being Buried (ny.curbed.com)

Funeral and Cemetery Preneed Down in the suburbs|Your Funeral Guy

Image by ChicagoGeek via Flickr

Funeral and cemetery Preneed, the  advanced purchase of prepaid funerals and burial sites seems to be down in the suburbs. This is what is being reported in a collar county outside Chicago.

Less money spent on preneed or prepaid funerals means a downward trend in Funeral Cost.

People still purchase rights to burial, but not like they once did. Society’s transient nature and the economy are contributing to more cremations and fewer rights to burial purchased in advance, those involved with funerals and cemeteries said.

“It’s not like they used to years ago when a family member buys 16 graves for the whole family,” said Roger Ronzheimer, superintendent for the St. Charles Township cemeteries.

via www.kcchronicle.com

Funeral industry| Funeral News | Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Senate Hearings on Arlington National Cemetery this week-yourfuneralguy

Image via Wikipedia

Arlington National Cemetery investigation is to continue this week.The problem of losing track of over 200 graves will  be addressed. Management at the cemetery dropped the ball in not setting up a digital record system to keep track of graves.

“Senators will hear testimony from Army officials next week in the ongoing controversy over the troubling mismanagement allegations at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Senate Homeland Security subcommittee on Contract Oversight will address the findings of a months-long Army investigation, which revealed a “dysfunctional” management system, flawed recordkeeping and more than 200 mismarked graves at the military burial site.

via thehill.com“-

Funeral industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

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• You: Army team at Arlington seeks to guarantee burial records (washingtonpost.com)

Report on George Steinbrenner Funeral-YourFuneralGuy

A Private Funeral took place for George Steinbrenner, the controversial New York Yankees owner on Saturday July 17th in Trinity Florida. The Funeral Took place at  Trinity Gardens Cemetery where a flag on the grounds flew at half mast.

Steinbrenner was  in a black casket something that is not seen too often. There were 10 Pall bearers and about 5o mourners. Family and  New York Yankee Employees were among the Mourners.

Steinbrenner was burried  in a mausoleum. On the day of his burial old timer day was taking place at Yankee Stadium.

George Steinbrenner, the most public of New York sports figures, was mourned Saturday by family and friends at an ultraprivate Florida funeral service.

A black casket bearing The Boss was carried by 10 pallbearers into a Florida mausoleum…….

A small group of about 50 people, including the 80-year-old Yankee icon’s wife and four children, arrived at the mausoleum in a six-vehicle funeral cortege.

Earlier, they attended an hour-long service at the chapel inside the Trinity Memorial Gardens cemetery on a blistering hot day with temperatures in the 90s.

via www.nydailynews.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral blog by Your Funeral guy



Belgium Undertakers want Alkaline Hydrolysis|Resomation-YourFuneralGuy

It appears that the new form of Disposition by Alkaline Hydrolysis is moving forward across the pond.

Known in Europe as Resomation, Belgium Funeral Directors may have the Process Made available to them in three months. In The US the process is named as green cremation, water resolution, bio cremation and several other names.

The process has been approved in six states in the US: Maryland, Minnesota, Maine, Colorado, Oregon, Florida. approval is expected soon in  California.

This  snippet from the article starts out by quoting Resomation Ltd, Sandy Stevens.

‘I am getting a lot of requests from families and we hope it will become legal in Scotland within the year.

‘Burial space is running out and I have had lots of people contact me whose loved ones have chosen resomation.

‘It’s a highly sensitive subject but I think the public are ready for it.’

The name ‘Resomation’ comes from the Greek word ‘Resoma’ meaning rebirth of the human body.

Members of the EU Commission must rule on the Belgian proposal as there are concerns that residual waste could be flushed into the drainage system.

Belgian undertakers hope to have the greenlight within three months.

In resomation the body is placed in a silk bag, itself placed within a metal cage frame. This is then loaded into a Resomator.

The machine is filled with a mixture of water and potassium hydroxide.

The end result is a small quantity of green-brown tinted liquid containing amino acids, peptides, sugars and salts and soft, porous white bone remains which are easily crushed.

The white ash can then be returned to the next of kin of the deceased.

The liquid can be recycled back to the ecosystem by being applied to a memorial garden or forest or simply put into the sewerage system.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

In the United States the Resomation Ltd distributorship is held by Matthews International

Sandy Stevens is the founder of Resomation LTD, one of 4 compamies in the world making alkaline hydrolysis machnes for the Funeral Industry.

Negative comments on the process are full of the the Phase “Soylent Green”. Certainly in bringing the alkaline hydrolysis machine  to market there are aesthetic issues to be over come.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

From my personal experience viewing  an alkaline hydrolysis machine  in action and experience as a funeral director there is no smell of death, or soylent green product.

Final Goodbyes(Funeral, Burial) For Senator Robert Byrd 07.06.10-your funeral guy

The funeral service and burial of  West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd is taking place in Arlington Virginia 7.06.10. The memorial Baptist Church in Arlington is the site for the funeral, the burial will take place at   the family plot at Columbia Gardens Cemetery.

One final goodbye for U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd and it will take place beginning at 11 o’clock this morning at funeral services at Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia.

The 92-year-old Byrd died last week. His life was remembered in a state memorial service at the state capitol on Friday.

Byrd will be buried beside his wife Erma during a private ceremony at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington.via www.wvmetronews.com

Sentor Byrds last procession will take him from Murphy Funeral Home to Memorial Baptist Church, to Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington Virginia.

Internment will follow the funeral service.

Funel industry|Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

New Good Carbon Footprint|Bio Cremation| Rockets you to the Great Beyond-Your Funeral Guy.

Traditional Cremation by Fire and Traditional burial give our Earth a Green, Carbon Footprint problem. Here is a summary of the Carbon Foot Print problem with  Traditional Funerals.

Of the more than 2.4 million deaths per year in the United States, roughly 70 percent of the newly departed are interred in traditional caskets — that is, wood, steel or even copper caskets, many of which are then encased in slabs of reinforced concrete to prevent the weight of the earth from causing them to collapse. For those who go the casket route, embalming with toxic chemicals like formaldehyde remains common.

As a result, the environmental footprint of the dead is a heavy one. Every year, cemeteries across the nation bury approximately 30 million board feet of hardwood, 104,000 tons of steel, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze and 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete, according to statistics gathered by environmental groups and advocates for green burial.

via green.blogs.nytimes.com

Here is a summary of the carbon footprint of cremation verses bio cremation or resomation, or water resolution

On Friday June 4th 2010  i had the privilege of viewing  demonstration of Alkaline hydrolysis decomposition.

A look inside the empty machine

CycledLife(TM) has a human machine being shipped to the funeral industry. I was invited to view the machine on Friday, June 4th 2010.This was a demonstration of accelerated Decomposition

The main point is that it has been observed that Alkaline Hydrolysis Works. Call it Bio Cremation, Water Resolution, Resomation, or green cremation-Alkaline Hydrolysis is simply a new form of Disposition, that is accelerated decomposition.

Here are some pictures from the event.

The Tray inside the machine getting ready for the process.

Machine Closed loaded Ready to be put in upright

The Tray inside the machine getting ready for the process, decomposition begins after chemicals applied with no water in upright position, with deceased inside.Water and agitation occur when machine is started up from side panel

Seeing is believing, accelerated decomposition in cycledlife  alkaline hydrolysis machine works

Funeral industry,Funeral News,Funeral Blog By Your Funeral Guy

Senator Robert Byrd to be Buried at Columbia Gardens Cemetery Arlington, Virginia |Your Funeral Guy

Although no formal burial plans have been announced for Senator Robert Byrd,  the  Family Burial Site,  where  his wife Erma is buried  has the Senators  name on the gravestone. This is located at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

The time of and date of a graveside Funeral Ceremony has not been announced. Senator Byrd is already listed as a famous internment at this cemetery by FindaGrave.com.

Snippet:

Byrd, Robert Carlyle b. November 20, 1917  d. June 28, 2010
US Senator. He was born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. and after his mother died in the 1918 influenza epidemic he was raised by his aunt and uncle, who renamed him. In 1946 he won a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates, serving until 1950, when he was elected to the State Senate, where he served until 1952. That year he was the successful Democratic nominee for a seat in the US House of Representatives and served three terms. Byrd was elected to the US Senate in 1958 and served from 1959.

via www.findagrave.com

Funeral Industry| Funeral News |Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Columbia Gardens  Cemetery Photo from flickr under the creative commons license from_rockinfree’s photostream

No copyright on  Byrd Headstone Photo,  link http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18821093

Will President Obama Speak at Senator Robert Byrd’s Funeral?|YourFuneralGuy

It will take several days to arrange the Senator Robert Byrd Funeral Service. Things could take 1-4 days because logistics will need to be coordinated with the Family, the  United States Senate, government officials and local Law enforcement.

The Logistics for an event like this are quite involved.

Odds are that Obama will speak and give a Eulogy.The White House will not announce whether President Obama will be at Senator Robert Byrd’s Funeral until Funeral Arrangements are finalized. The announcement may come just before the funeral for security reasons.

There will be probably be some sort of National Memorial Service where Fellow Senators can share their memories. This was the case in Senator Ted Kennedy’s. Funeral.

President Obama will  probably speak reading a teleprompter and fulfill his role Griever in Chief .

The burial will most likely be private.

Funeral Industry| Funeral News | Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy, Funeral Director, Illinois and Virginia

Source(s)for this speculative post:

Your Funeral Guy Blogs on the Funerals of Government Leaders.Examples:Ted Kennedy, John Murtha, Jack Kemp, Polish President
http://www.yourfuneralguy.com
http://www.yourfuneralguy.wordpress.com
http://www.rbrianburkhardt.com

Featured Image From Flickr under the Creative Commons license.-from

onathanpberger’s photostream