Free Republic

PEOSTA, Iowa (CNS) -- For the craftsmen and artisans at New Melleray Abbey in Peosta, a relatively new ministry has expanded into a new state-of-the-art, 40,000-square-foot factory, almost five times larger than their previous facility. "Because of increasing demands for caskets, we were unable to keep up with production to satisfy demand, so we had to develop a new woodworking facility," said Sam Mulgrew, the operation's general manager. "It's not a highly automated factory. It has good dust collection, air quality and other features." In their work, the monks strive to produce burial caskets and urns that reflect their values...

Funerals are emotional enough without red-tinged liquid pooling underneath the casket. That’s what the survivors of an 84-year-old Portland woman said they witnessed, and they claimed the image forever tainted what should have been a celebration of a wonderful life. Jean McCurdy described her mother’s last days as peaceful, with her slipping away as the last of her five daughters rushed to her bedside. "My sister from Florida had only been there about a half-hour, and she went into a coma," she told News 8. Days later, at Portland’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the gathering to celebrate Helen Glazier’s...

TUCSON, ARIZ. - An empty casket with a military seal was discovered in a desert area south of Tucson, and sheriff's deputies were looking for the body. ADVERTISEMENT "Obviously it had the smell, and there was other evidence that it had been inhabited recently," Deputy Dawn Barkman said Sunday. Forensic investigators took DNA samples, and a nationwide alert was issued in hope of finding out who was the casket, Barkman said. Deputies were called to a desert area near Interstate 10 Saturday after two people playing paintball found the casket. The casket was metallic silver with a U.S. Army insignia...

An area company has agreed to recall a number of caskets from funeral homes after a patent infringement lawsuit was settled in fedeal court.

Tookie is that you?

Decision Over Faulty Casket Upsets Son "HAWESVILLE, Ky. - Sherrol Sweeney has been dead and buried in the city cemetery at Lewisport, Ky., for nearly four years, but his son, Alan, is still troubled by his father's funeral. On Aug. 31, 2001, the funeral director and pallbearers were removing his father's casket when something went wrong. Pulling the wooden casket from the hearse, the bottom of the coffin came loose, allowing the departed's torso to drop down. The casket was not entirely out of the hearse. If it hadn't been for that fact, the son said, the father's body would...

<p>SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq invited news coverage of the arrival of her son's flag-draped casket at Sacramento International Airport.</p> <p>Nearly a dozen reporters, photographers and television crews were present when the coffin of Army Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey, 34, was transferred to a hearse outside a cargo terminal late Sunday.</p>

"Indecent Exposure" John Kerry political cartoon.  June 9, 2004... Kerry photo-ops Reagan casket Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry showed up at the Reagan Library on Tuesday afternoon to view the deceased former president’s casket, setting off a firestorm of reaction. ·        At issue: The need for a Kerry visit to the Reagan Library in California. As reported by Rush Limbaugh, a Kerry spokesperson had already announced Kerry would attend the State Funeral for Reagan on Friday in Washington, D.C.·        At issue: The photographer accompanying Kerry into the Reagan Library. Clear guidelines (handed out to everyone prior to entering...