Commercial Auto Dealers

With baby boomers beginning to die off, funeral trends are beginning to change. People are planning their funerals based around the things they loved in life. For example, there are many casket manufacturers that have caskets decorated with sports logos. If you’re planning your funeral before your death, you can find a casket covered with New York Yankee logos or your favorite team.

But will there be many changes at hearse dealerships?

Since more people are looking at funerals as a way to celebrate their life rather than mourn a death, there are also many customized Cadillac hearses available to meet the person’s needs. If you have enough money, you can get a customized hearse with flames on the sides, a souped-up hearse or anything else your mind can imagine.

If you’re considering a customized hearse, the best thing to do is consult with any hearse dealerships in your area. They can give you an idea of how to go about getting a customized hearse for your funeral. Just be sure you plan for the event in advance if you want to ensure you get exactly what you want. The longer you wait, the less time you have to finalize the plans.

He drove hearses. He embalmed bodies. He performed funerals. But he also did some things he wasn’t supposed to do. And for those things, he was fined $10,000 by the state of Connecticut, but he gets to keep his license.

A two-year investigation began when some probate officials suspected he was stealing property from dead people. After the hearing, though, the Connecticut Board of Examiners of Embalmers and Funeral Directors voted to allow Kevin Riley to keep his license. The vote ended a long process that found Riley “not guilty” of more than 60 counts of wrongdoing brought against him. The only thing he was found guilty on was allowing unlicensed people to perform embalming work. For that, he was issued an official reprimand. One thing he was charged with was charging families for the use of hearses that were never used.

Other than the unlicensed embalmers performing services, the investigation turned up nothing that could be held against Riley. “It’s hour hope we can now move forward and Kevin can get back to business,” said John Droney, the attorney that represented him.

The National Museum of Funeral History in Houston, Texas is one of the most prominent facilities for viewing funeral-related relics, antiques and exhibits. When you visit it, you’ll likely see displays of funeral cars, Cadillac hearses, caskets and much more. But the facility recently added a new exhibit that some people may enjoy.

“Celebrating the Lives and Deaths of the Popes” is the new exhibit at the National Museum of Funeral History. The 5,000 square foot exhibit is the only one of its kind outside of the Vatican that has papal artifacts and displays. Many items were even donated to the museum by Roberto Consorsi, the Pope’s personal tailor. Two of the donations are funeral vestments designed for the burial of the late John Paul II. Another item was the embroidered sash that the Pope wore every day.

“We’re truly blessed to have this,” said Genevieve Keeney, the museum’s director. She spent “hundreds of hours painstakingly recreating papal funeral rituals” to make the display just right. She used photos and other items donated from the Vatican to recreate the rituals in the museum.

We’ll have more about this display and others at the National Museum of Funeral History. It’s one of the most interesting death-related places in the country!

The only thing missing from this bizarre scene was the camera crew from “Cops.” While a man was helping to load his father’s casket into a waiting Cadillac hearse in North Carolina, five deputies zapped him with a Taser while serving an arrest warrant for him.

The charges for which the man was being arrested was threatening his ex-wife. The deputies in New Hanover County felt it was necessary to confront the man at this inopportune time and now they are being reprimanded. They were told to wait until after the services were over before they confronted him. However, two detectives in plain clothes decided to serve the warrant at the Cadillac hearse without even identifying themselves.

In addition to all of that, one deputy’s gun fell to the ground during the scuffle.

Other pallbearers were amazed at the incident. A couple of them were so frightened that they almost dropped the casket of the man being buried with military honors. Some were afraid of what was happening because they didn’t know the men were with the police force. As a result, they fled the scene in fear.

I don’t like to criticize the police, but it seems like they dropped the ball on this one. Couldn’t they have waited another five minutes?

When Marks Comeaux began in the funeral business nearly 65 years ago, Cadillac hearses were not just used to transport the dead.

When Comeaux began working in the funeral industry, hearses had more than just one purpose. Since they were one of the few types of vehicles that could transport people lying down, they were also used for ambulances. As a result, Comeaux “helped welcome thousands of new babies into the world on one end while giving a loving good-bye to their parents and loved ones on the other.”

After 65 years, Comeaux has probably done all there is to do in the funeral industry. However, the 83-year-old retiree said he has no idea how many funerals he has helped with during his 65 years in the business. But, he said, he is sure that figure is in the tens of thousands. He started in the business at First National Funeral Home at the age of 19. He only stayed there for about a year when another director offered him five times as much money in addition to free lodging.

The one major change he has noticed in the industry is that more people choose to have their funeral services at a mortuary whereas they were once held in the person’s home. But with tough economic times, more people in recent months have opted to have services at home in order to save money and have a more intimate service. It’s funny how things eventually come full circle, isn’t it?

We’ve written about Cadillac hearses and funeral cars a lot on this blog. We’ve mentioned how people have turned coffins into funeral cars and several other odd stories from across the world. I’m not sure that any of those can compare with this one, though.

Derek Lewis, a member of the Kaos Funeral Cars club, has a funeral car that gets a lot of attention at Halloween. But his hearse is probably unlike any other. You see, his hearse also has a BBQ grill built into it.

While I can’t imagine grilling hot dogs or hamburgers on any part of a hearse, I’m sure Lewis would be fairly popular at tailgating parties and cookouts when he rolls up in his morbid ride, opens a lid and lights a flame. Odd or not, it’s one of the most creative things I’ve heard of somebody doing with funeral cars thus far.

Lewis also makes appearances at charity events in his local area with his unusual funeral car. He gets a lot of people asking him questions about his creation and what possessed him to do such a thing.

Have you heard of any other creative things that people have done with hearses? If so, let us know. We might just do a short write-up about them!

Every time you see someone in a Cadillac hearse, there’s a good chance that they got that vehicle from a local hearse dealership. There are many misconceptions about hearse owners, but the fact is that many of them are as “normal as you and me. Their purchase from the hearse dealership does not necessarily make them morbid, it just makes their interests different than the interests of the mainstream. And for many hearse drivers, there is a story behind their unusual possession.

One driver – Amber Hallacy – started driving hearses when an elderly friend asked her to take care of his funeral coach when he could no longer care for it. At first, she didn’t want to drive around in a car that once carried corpses, but she grew accustomed to the idea. After four months, she fell in love with it. But when that hearse broke down, she bought another one and put the motor from her first hearse into the new one. “Actually a lot of that car is in her…so there is still a piece of it on the road,” she said.

This is just one story of how hearses can grow on people. We’ll have more stories about hearse owners in the days and weeks to come. Until then, visit a local hearse dealership today and see if maybe one of these vehicles are for you.

As economic times continue to get tough while putting strains on our finances, one place where people are making cutbacks is at funerals. Instead of opting for all the bells and whistles, people are cutting out the use of Cadillac hearses, fancy caskets and even funeral services to save money.

This story comes from the Detroit Free Press in Michigan and talks about some of the alternatives that families are making when loved ones pass away. One mother decided to have private services at her home when her son died because the cost of having the services at a funeral home were simply too expensive. A local funeral director did, however, help prepare the body and the room for a funeral service for a small fee.

More and more funeral directors are offering base services for a fraction of the cost of traditional services. Some of those base-priced services are around $800 and some directors will even work out payment plans.

My heart goes out to the people that cannot afford anything but the base-priced services. I recently went through this heartbreaking event when my father-in-law passed away. Even so, there is something to be said for the images of our deceased loved ones being taken to their final resting place in a Cadillac hearse. Either way, we can all agree that funerals are more for the living rather than the dead. As such, we must make our decisions based on that rather than letting our emotions get the best of us.

Although joking about funeral cars isn’t always funny, there are times when we have to laugh about death in order to keep our sanity. Having a sense of humor helps us deal with our own mortality and the mortality of our loved ones. That’s why I’ve decided to post this joke that I heard recently. I hope it gives you as much of a chuckle as it gave me.

A man was walking home one day when he noticed a procession of funeral cars and mourners. There were two Cadillac hearses in front, one in front of the other. Behind the second Cadillac hearse was a man walking a dog. Behind him was a single-file line of about 200 other men.

The man that was walking home quietly approached the man walking the dog. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said, “and I hate to disturb you at a time like this, but I’ve never seen a funeral procession like this. May I ask what happened?”

“Well,” said the man with the dog, “the first hearse is carrying my wife. Her dog attacked her and killed her.”

The first man inquired further. “Well, who is in the second hearse then?”

“The second hearse has my mother-in-law. She was trying to help my wife and the dog attacked her, too.”

The first man thought for a second before breaking the silence. “Can I borrow the dog?” he asked.

The man with the dog got a smile on his face and replied, “Get in line.”

Look for more jokes about funeral cars in the future.

We’ve reported on here several times about the home in Huntersville that looked like a dilapidated hearse dealership. If you don’t remember, a man left his home cluttered with a number of old funeral cars and Cadillac hearses in his yard causing it to look like a rundown hearse dealership.

But it appears that problem is over.

After months of levying unanswered fines and other penalties on the owner of the home, the local government was finally able to foreclose on the home and remove the old hearses that were scattered around the yard.

When a town official showed a picture to the crowd at a recent meeting, neighbors that were disgusted at the house broke out into applause.

The owner of the house – Tom Davis – racked up more than $13,000 in the last few months. He has not paid those fines and the town has not heard from him in months. That didn’t stop them from levying fines so they could foreclose on the home, though. Upon the official foreclosure proceedings, town officials began removing the old hearses from the property. The new owner came to own the home with a bid of more than $225,000 and plans to keep the yard uncluttered.