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If you’re an Elvis fan like me, you probably start thinking about his funeral this time of year. You start looking at the pictures of the hearses that lined the streets during the procession. You might even wonder a few things about his funeral. As luck would have it, our recent road trip took us by The King’s old home – Graceland. While I was there, I pictured the hearses that lined the streets following his funeral. That got me to think even more about what happened at his funeral. So I decided to look up some information and give you some highlights as well.

The Eulogy
Jackie Kahane gave the eulogy at Elvis’s funeral. He was a comedian that opened up for Elvis many, many times when he was playing in Vegas. He was also the person that announced the famous phrase – “Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.” Kahane passed away in March 2001.

The Pallbearers
The pallbearers that served at Elvis Presley’s funeral were Lamar Fike, George Klein, Joe Esposito, Dr. Nichopoulous, Gene Smith, Billy Smith, Charlie Hodges and Jerry Schilling.

The Picture
The National Enquirer paid one of Presley’s cousins nearly $20,000 for a photograph of Elvis inside the casket. He had to do it secretively, but it appeared on the cover of the tabloid and made that particular issue the fastest and bestselling issue of all time.

The Mourners
In many of the pictures of the procession, you can see a large number of hearses and funeral cars lining the streets of Memphis. The hearse that carried Presley’s body was sold several years later and eventually caught fire and burned up.

The Grave
Elvis was first buried next to his mother at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis. However, after someone attempted to steal his body, he and his mother were moved to a more secure setting inside Graceland in the Meditation Gardens.

Amidst the funeral cars, flowers and other traditions of today’s funeral services, there is a certain procedure to follow to ensure an ethical and respectful ceremony. Sometimes, though, the funeral director fails to conduct a service in this manner. That’s where the Funeral Ethics Association, or FEA, can help.

Before I tell you what the FEA actually does, I have a story that relates. About 12 years ago, my uncle passed away. Although it was never officially declared, we think he committed suicide because he was running his car on a cold night in a closed garage. But either way, the family didn’t want any of the speakers during the ceremony to discuss that. The minister did a great job of skirting the issue. After his eulogy, though, the funeral director stood up and said, “This is an especially grievous death because it’s a suicide.”

If that was the only thing wrong, it might not have been so bad. But the funeral director did other things that we didn’t appreciate. He didn’t provide funeral cars for the family to get to the gravesite. Family members had to drive themselves to the grave instead of mourning in the back of the customary funeral cars that are designed for their convenience. He didn’t oversee the embalming process and blood settled in various places on the body as a result of shoddy workmanship. He also didn’t have working bathrooms during the days of the visitation and the ceremony. These and other problems are exactly why my aunt contacted the FEA the day after the funeral. I’ll tell you what happened from there on Wednesday.

You’ve probably heard about the people who go out and protest at funerals for soldiers and servicemen who died in battle. If you haven’t heard, the group behind these protests is the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. They like to get a bunch of people together and hold up signs that say, “You’re Going to Hell” and “America is Doomed” as well as some other not-so-nice phrases. Their point is that these soldiers are fighting for a nation that is anti-God and, as a result, the soldiers are also anti-God.

I had an encounter of sorts with these people a few years ago. I was a flower delivery person at a floral shop next door to the most popular funeral home in Flint, Michigan. One of our beloved soldiers was going to have a funeral there in August of 2006. In the days leading up to the funeral, we heard stories that these protestors were going to show up and do their thing.

On the day of the funeral, however, these protestors dared not show their face. The street was lined on both sides of people carrying huge American flags and they were waving them with nothing but pride. The group had planned to meet across the street from the funeral home in the Home Depot parking lot. But that’s where a line of fire trucks just happened to park along the street so nobody could see them even if they had the guts to show up. We heard the group started to set up their protest, but they left when they saw the outpouring of patriotism that surrounded them.

While I think these people are despicable and wretched, it still begs the question: Does the government have the right to shut them down? Do they, just like everybody else, have the freedom to speak their minds even if it’s the most unpopular thing to do at a funeral? Should funeral cars filled with family members be forced to endure these verbal attacks? These are groups and issues that the funeral industry is encountering these days. Tell us what you think about the situation and if you have any viable solutions.

Have you ever wondered how different cultures say goodbye to their deceased loved ones? The Japanese culture is unique in the way that they have funerals. In case you’ve never been to a Japanese funeral, here are some facts about the ceremony and rituals associated with it.

Most Japanese funerals don’t involve funeral cars or a procession to the cemetery. Instead, the body of the deceased is cremated on the day of the ceremony. In the crematorium, the family and friends typically gather for a small meal. Once the body is cremated and cooled, the people attending the ceremony pick the small bone fragments from the ash and pass them to each other using chopsticks.

Buddhist monks then conduct the actual funeral ceremony. The ceremony usually follows traditional Buddhist customs. Guests must pay 20,000 yen to the immediate family and they then receive a small gift of thanks. The family then has another meal following the ceremony.

Following the ceremony, the family keeps the urn at their house for 35 days. During that time, they burn incense around the clock. They also have many visitors during this time. The visitors can also burn an incense stick out of respect for the deceased. When the 35 days has passed, the family buries the urn in a Buddhist cemetery.