TGIF From TIFG!
Thank goodness it’s Friday! We’re just days away from our favorite event of the year — The Group’s Fall Conference. We can’t wait! Until then, here are some of this past week’s happenings and what’s coming up next in the world of deathcare — plus a little good news, because who doesn’t need that?
Highlights and headlines
↪ Good news for Tennessee: Last week, Comfort Zone Camp, a weekend grief camp that hosts up to 60 kids who have lost a parent, held a fundraiser in Nashville for its camp in Tennessee, which is scheduled for October at Camp Widjiwagan. The group has helped about 30,000 kids across 12 states, and Tennessee will be the 13th state with the overnight, weekend camp.
↪ He missed her: A South Carolina man is facing charges after the family of his deceased girlfriend recently realized that he had disinterred her urn from the cemetery nearly 10 months ago and had taken it to his home.
↪ A heartwarming story: A Texas woman is giving away eight cemetery plots (worth up to $2,600 each) to families who lose children in honor of her own granddaughter, who died in 2017.
Practitioner spotlight
Did you know that Robert Jerome “R.J.” Coulter, founder of Coulter-Garrison Funeral Home in Dayton, Tennessee, was selected as the funeral director for William Jennings Bryan in 1925?
Bryan, known as “the Great Commoner” for his support of and faith in everyday people, was a well-known attorney, journalist, orator, and politician from Nebraska. He fought in the Spanish-American war, served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Secretary of State, and ran three times as the Democratic nominee for President. In his later years, Bryan left politics behind and focused on religious pursuits, leading a Bible class and publishing religious-themed books as an anti-evolution activist.
Bryan passed away in Dayton just four days after being called as a witness by defense attorney Clarence Darrow in the historic trial of John T. Scopes, a Dayton substitute biology teacher who was accused of violating the Butler Act, a Tennessee law barring the teaching of evolution in public schools.
In the three years since opening his funeral home in Chattanooga, R.J. Coulter had earned the respect and trust of the people of East Tennessee; a July 1925 newspaper ad for the R.J. Coulter Undertaking Co. also cited his “individual silent service.” For these reasons, Bryan’s widow, Mary, chose Coulter to prepare her husband’s body to lie in state in a bronze casket at a friend’s home in Dayton. Coulter then delivered the body by car to Chattanooga, then accompanied Bryan on as he was transported by rail to Washington, D.C. for burial in Arlington National Cemetery.
For the Good of the Group (and Anyone Else!)
EVENT: We hope to see you at the 2026 TIFG Fall Conference next week. Fun, fellowship, and (hopefully) some fall-like temperatures at a stunning mountaintop resort. Who could ask for more?
CONTINUING EDUCATION: Decoding the Death Certificate: Reading Between the Lines of Life's Final Paperwork on October 14 … Secure your spot today!
CONTINUING EDUCATION: Funding Prearranged Funerals, presented by Brianne Niedermyer of Homesteaders Life Company on November 11. Don’t miss this one!
One Question for You
Editor’s note: We would love to have a few more responses to last week’s question before we publish the results. Please take a few moments to share your numbers.
Unclaimed cremains are a growing problem, which leads us to this week’s One Question:
How many sets of unclaimed cremated remains are you currently holding?
P.S. These surveys are anonymous and designed to help us gain more information on all aspects of funeral service ... so that, hopefully, we can help with solutions.
We’ll share the results in next week’s TGIF along with a new question!
In Case You Missed It
Here’s what The Group has published recently in The Practitioners’ Post:
