May 2021

Page A2 MAY 2021 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A Published Monthly by: Nomis Publications, Inc. PO Box 5159, Youngstown, OH 44514 1-800-321-7479 FAX 1-800-321-9040 www.nomispublications.com info@nomispublications.com Subscription: United States $25.00 - Canada/Mexico $50.00 Circulation 21,000 per issue. Overseas rates available. Deadline for Press Releases: 5th of the Previous month. Advertising: Display Ad rates sent upon request. Classified and Shipping Directory rates published in each issue. All advertising must be received by the 5th of the previous month. Due to the vast amount of sources, the publisher is not responsible for the content of any news articles or advertisements. Nor is the publisher responsible for any loss of revenue by failure to insert an advertisement. The contents of any advertisement submitted for publication are only the publisher’s responsibility if the error is made by the publisher’s typesetting department, and then only to the extent of the typesetting charges. Advertisers are responsible for adhering to individual state regulations regarding advertising. The contents of any news article submitted for publication is subject to editing and is published at the sole discretion of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to refuse any news article or advertisement. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced, in whole or part, without the exclusive consent of Nomis Publications, Inc. Editor: Margaret (Peggy) Rouzzo © 2021 by Nomis Publications, Inc. ISSN 1944-1126 Funeral Home & Cemetery News Online at www.nomispublications.com MONTHLY FEATURES Classified Ads . .............................................................................................. B17 Shipping Directory ........................................................................................ B14 Calendar of Events ........................................................................................ B2 Association News . ......................................................................................... A32 Deaths ............................................................................................................. A38 Educational News .......................................................................................... A29 Suppliers News ................................................................................................ B1 COLUMNS: Aftercare by Linda Findlay. ................................................................................ A8 Embalming 101 by Wally Hooker...................................................................... A16 Facebook Made Easy by Jason Troyer PhD..................................................... A10 The Foundations of Success for Funeral Directors by Mark Bowser............. A18 HearseHub by Mike Jamar. ................................................................................ B6 Memoires des choix des Jacque by Kate Frediani-Gorman. ........................... A32 Museum Corner ............................................................................................... A34 Observations by Steven Palmer....................................................................... A12 Powerhouse Marketing With Welton by Welton Hong....................................... A6 Random Musings by Nancy Weil. ...................................................................... A4 Rest In Peace Mr President by Todd Van Beck................................................ A22 Working With Widowers by Fred Colby .......................................................... A20 NOTICE The FUNERAL HOME AND CEMETERY NEWS is now sent in two parts. Section A, which in - cludes pages A1-A40 and Section B, which contains the Classified Advertising and consists of pages B1-B24. If you do not receive both sections please call 1-800-321-7479 or email info@nomispublications.com. FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Online Directories US & International Funeral Homes • Supply Companies Cemeteries • Pet Memorialization Companies Trade Associations • Plus Much More... www.nomispublications.com Like Us On FRONT COVER c/o Nomis Publications, PO Box 5159, Youngstown, OH 44514 Funeral Home and Cemetery Directory 1-800-321-7479 www.nomispublications.com 2022 FEATURING HERE No Charge to Submit Submit your photograph or line drawing , along with your firm’s name , address , phone number , contact person , and a short description of your facility Send to: Be Featured on the 2022 Front Cover “It is truly an honor that our family owned and operated funeral home was chosen by Nomis Publications as the featured funeral home for the cover of the 2021 Directory. I have read the monthly newspaper since it was first published in 1974 and we depend on the directory for our out of the area needs.” – Dean W. Kriner, President, Dean W. Kriner, Inc., Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Bloomsburg, PA, 2021 Cover “We are truly pleased that Nomis Publications has selected our funeral home as the cover of the 2020 directory. This publication has been on my desk as long as I have been in funeral service and it is humbling to have been given this honor” – Matthew R. Bailey, CFSP, B.C. Bailey Funeral Home, Wallingford, CT, 2020 Cover For more information, call Kim 800-321-7479 kim@nomispublications.com • www.nomispublications.com “Once FEMA made their initial an- nouncement, we knew that our funer- al home clients and other funeral homes around the nation would benefit from this information,” said Jeff Stewart, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Funeral Directors Life. Included in the toolkit are a social media caption and graphic, a templated press re- lease, an FAQ sheet for funeral homes, an article for families, and a short video that funeral homes can share online. “COVID-19 has affected everyone,” added Stewart. “That’s why these resourc- es are free to anyone who would like to use them to serve their families.” Funeral professionals can go to www.funeraldirectorslife.com/resources to download the toolkit and start using the materials. Funeral Directors Life, rated A- (Ex- cellent) by A.M. Best Company, is a le- gal reserve life insurance company which specializes in the sale of insur- ance-funded preneed funerals. Their mis- sion is “to be known as the best, most- respected provider of service to the funeral industry.” For more informa- tion about Funeral Directors Life, visit www.funeraldirectorslife.com. Funeral Directors Life Offering Free Resources about FEMA Assistance with COVID-19 Funeral Expenses ABILENE,TX— Funeral Di- rectors Life is proud to offer a complimentary media tool- kit for funeral homes whose families may have experienced a COVID-19 related death. With these materials, funer- al homes can answer ques- tions families may have about eligibility requirements and FEMA’s assistance with funer- al expenses. A Tribute to Tom McPherson By Gregg D. Merksamer Canadian “hearse-storian” Thomas A. McPherson has his picture taken with the stately, Flxible- bodied 1964 Buick Premier funeral coach/ambulance “combination” shown by Walter Lindsey of Loudonville, OH at the Professional Car Society’s 2011 International Meet in Hudson, OH. Thomas A. McPher- son, undisputedly the auto hobby’s most authoritative historian and prolifically- published author on the topic of ambulances, fu- neral cars and the specialist coachbuilders that created them, died February 25, 2021 at the age of 73 af- ter collapsing in the drive- way of his Toronto home. He leaves behind his wife Cindi, daughter Meagh- en Clark and hundreds of friends and fans affiliated with The Professional Car Society (PCS) and Profes- sional Cars International (PCI). This Shelby, OH na- tive was only 10 years old when he first got hooked on hearses and ambulances through the ads he clipped from a stack of old mortu- ary trade magazines he’d acquired from a funer- al home that was cleaning house, and had accumulat- ed more than 2,000 coach- builder sales brochures and factory photos by the time his Crestline-published 1973 tome American Fu- neral Cars and Ambulanc- es Since 1900 became the first serious and compre- hensive book-length sur- vey of professional car his- tory. Despite its “acquired taste” subject matter his affectionately-nicknamed “Black Book” found a fer- vent following among fu- neral directors and emergency service person- nel who spent their ca- reers working with these vehicles, which proved in- strumental in creating an enthusiastic membership base for the Profession- al Car Society co-founded by George Hamlin and Dwight Heinmuller in 1976. PCS publications direc- tor Walt McCall, was aus- piciously introduced to McPherson on March 10, 1970 (“How’s that for re- call?,” he reminisces) by an editor at the Wind- sor Star in Ontario who was stunned to discover he had two “hearse-stori- ans” on his newsroom staff wait expressed thanks af- ter Tom’s passing for their 51-year friendship and the scores of feature articles Tom contributed to The Professional Car, asserting “it’s miraculous how our paths crossed at all when you look at what resulted from it.” Over the years Tom’s PCS extended fam- ily also embraced the oth- er books in which he ex- haustively chronicled the histories of individual fu- neral coach and ambu- lance builders like Flxible (1993), Eureka (1994 ), S u- perior (1995) through his own Specialty Vehicle Press and his Iconografix-pub- lished Complete Histories of The Henney Motor Com- pany in 2009 and Miller- Meteor in 2010. McPher- son also wrote The Dodge Story for Crestline Pub- lishing in 1975 and co-au- thored Iconografix’s 2011 Illustrated History of 1933- 1948 Carved-Panel Hearses withWalt McCall. He even built his own professional cars in Toronto after team- ing up with Vancouver, BC coach dealer Howard Carter during the 1980s to revive the venerated 1871- 1964 Eureka brand for a broad, historically-inspired range of Chevrolet, Ponti- ac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac funeral vehicles that even included 1930s style town car hearses. Gregg D. Merksamer is the publicity and media rela- tions specialist for the Profes- sional Cars Society.