UNDERTAKER PRESENTS HIS BILL FOR AMERICANS KILLED IN VIETNAM
The cost of burying a casualty is proving to be something of a shock to thousands of American families.
Many of them were under the impression that this is taken care of by the government. After all, if they furnished the boy, shouldn't the government furnish the coffin and the grave?
A case in Chicago was reported by the CDN news service. Edwin Gray, 20, was hit in the throat by a bullet November 9. The army embalmed him and flew him in a steel coffin to O Hare Airport.
That was where the family found themselves being handed the tab. The first item was "hearse pickup...#85."
For two days use of the funeral chapel, the bill was $150. To which was added $150 for "personal services" and $40 for "two floral vases."
Church services ran to $35, and
memorial booklets and holy cards to an-
other $16.50.
This was only the beginning. A
vault sent the bill up another $160. Then
came "cemetery charges"...$115. Carrying
the coffin to the cemetery cost $49.50.
Carting the flowers to the grave
ran the bill up an additional $40.
Then there was the curious item of
$6 for "pallbearers' gloves."
The bill finally presented to the
father was $1,003. The government gave
him a check for $300.
The funeral director, a sympathetic
type, explained the facts of life to the
family. "The cost of living is going up.
So our prices are going up, too.
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