Gone to the Grave

Before there was a death care industrywhere professional funeral directorsoffered embalming and other servicesresidents of the Arkansas Ozarks-andfor that matter people throughout theSouth-buried their own dead. Everypart of the complicated labor-intensiveprocess was handled within thedeceased's community. This processincluded preparation of the body forburial making a wooden coffin diggingthe grave and overseeing theburial ceremony as well as observing awide variety of customs and superstitions.These traditions especially in ruralcommunities remained the norm upthrough the end of World War II afterwhich a variety of factors primarily theloss of manpower and the rise of thefuneral industry brought about theend of most customs.Gone to the Grave a meticulous autopsy of this now vanishedway of life and death documents mourning and practical ritualsthrough interviews diaries and reminiscences obituaries anda wide variety of other sources. Abby Burnett covers attemptsto stave off death; passings that for various reasons could notbe mourned according to tradition; factors contributing to highmaternal and infant mortality; and the ways in which loss wasexpressed through obituaries and epitaphs. A concluding chapterexamines early undertaking practices and the many anglesfuneral industry professionals worked to convince the public ofthe need for their services.Abby Burnett Kingston Arkansas is a former freelance newspaperreporter. She is the author of When the Presbyterians Came toKingston: Kingston Community Church 1917-1951.