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Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast By Glenn A. Knoblock
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Announcements
Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb By Scott L. Newstok
An innovative study of the Renaissance practice of making epitaphic gestures within other English genres. A poetics of quotation uncovers the ways in which writers including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Holinshed, Sidney, Jonson, Donne, and Elizabeth I have recited these texts within new contexts. Visit Palgrave Macmillan and purchase your copy today!
Living by the Dead By Ellen Ashdown with illustrations by Mary Liz Moody.
A memoir about living beside a cemetery--and about the members of my family who came to rest at Roselawn Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida. Please visit Kitsune Books for more information.
Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski.
Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman
Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture is now available. Please visit Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark
Features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Familys Lawsuit Claims Relative Wasnt Embalmed Properly |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Monday, 30 August 2004 |
By Jeff Scullin
The Ledger
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LAKELAND
Bennie Baucom reeked of death in his final hours above ground. His body was swollen, bloated and barely recognizable to people who had known him all their lives and had come to honor him.
But for at least some people who attended Baucom's September visitation and funeral, their lasting memory of the longtime Lakeland resident is the way he smelled.
"It was a rotting, a stomachturning odor that would just gag you," Bennie Baucom Jr. said in a recent interview. "(It was) like a smell I'd never smelled before."
The Baucoms contend that Lanier Funeral Home did not properly embalm Bennie Baucom, causing his body to decompose and swell horrifically just three days after he died.
In December, the family sued the Lakeland funeral home, seeking more than $15,000 in damages.
According to the family's lawsuit:
Baucom's body was in good condition when the funeral home picked it up from his North Lakeland home on Sept. 5, the day he died. But Lanier's staff did not properly embalm the body.
As a result, Baucom's body was severely decomposed by the time the visitation occurred three days later.
"The body was barely recognizable to friends and family members," the lawsuit says.
"At the open-casket service, Mr. Baucom's remains appeared to be `sweating' and began to emit the foulest odor imaginable."
The acrid stench of death permeated both the open-casket service and burial service to such an extent that the mourners, including the Baucoms, were visibly sickened and nauseated.
"The stench of death was so prevalent that it permeated the pallbearers' clothing, which had to be laundered before the smell could be extinguished."
Baucom's grandchildren were not able to get close to the coffin to say their final goodbyes because of the odor, according to the lawsuit.
Lanier's staff made matters worse by being rude to the Baucoms. At the gravesite service, Mike Lanier -- the funeral home's president and one of its funeral directors -- crashed the hearse and then left before the service concluded to fix the car's bumper.
Son Danny Baucom said the funeral home simply wanted to be done with the family.
"They thought they got away with this," he said. "They wanted dirt on top of that casket."
The funeral home concedes that several things went awry in Baucom's case.
In a June deposition, Mike Lanier acknowledged that, at the funeral, Baucom's body smelled and was discolored next to the right ear -- signs that the body had not been properly embalmed.
"He noticed an indescribable odor that was pretty bad," said Hank Campbell, Lanier's lawyer.
Lanier also conceded that Baucom's embalmer, Leonard Walker, had done a poor job and had been rude to the family.
A week after Bennie Baucom's funeral, the funeral home fired Walker, who did not return calls for this story.
"He (Walker) didn't have the proper attitude of servitude as he should have," Campbell said, reading from Lanier's deposition.
Campbell said Lanier did not realize there was a problem with Baucom's body until the funeral, though the family claims the body had a foul smell at the visitation the day before.
Lanier used a deodorizer on the body at the funeral, Campbell said. But it did not stop the foul odor.
A day or two after Baucom's funeral, Lanier met with the family and apologized for the way the body smelled and for Walker's rude behavior, Campbell said.
The funeral director also told family members they did not need to pay for Baucom's embalming.
But Lanier disputes the family's other allegations, Campbell said.
Lanier claims not to have noticed any bloating or swelling of Baucom's body, nor any "sweating" or fluids.
The Baucoms did not register a complaint until after the funeral and that was about how Walker treated them, according to Lanier.
Lanier did not crash the hearse at the gravesite service, then dash off to get the bumper reattached, as the Baucoms have claimed, Campbell said.
"This was an isolated event," Campbell said. "It never occurred before or after. Lanier Funeral Home is a very reputable funeral home in the community."
The Baucoms do not dispute Lanier's reputation. Bobbie Baucom, the deceased's widow, said the family had trusted its dead to Lanier for years.
But family members said they never received an explanation for how the funeral home could have so tarnished their final memories of a man whose funeral drew about 500 people.
A looming question is whether Baucom's body was improperly embalmed or never embalmed at all.
"It was hard to say goodbye to my husband -- the way he looked, the odor," Bobbie Baucom said. "I don't think anybody should have to go through this."
The Baucoms say they want justice for Bennie Baucom, to make sure what happened to them never happens to another family and the closure they should have found when they buried Baucom.
"A funeral like this, you don't have no closure -- no good night's sleep," Danny Baucom said. "I'd like for the Laniers to look in my mother's eyes and say what happened."
If the parties do not reach a settlement at an upcoming mediation, a jury is scheduled to hear the case in October.
Jeff Scullin can be reached at
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or 863-802-7524.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040829/NEWS/408290385/0/FRONTPAGE |
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