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Iowans Costly Funeral Ushers in Controversy |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Friday, 08 April 2005 |
By JENNIFER JACOBS April 7, 2005
Des Moines Register
I, Ruth W. Morrow, a resident of Bedford, Taylor County, Iowa . . . hereby make, publish and declare this to be my Last Will and Testament.
In her will, Morrow made it clear she wanted her top 10 favorite charities to inherit the $1 million she'd squirreled away during her career as a bookkeeper.
But Morrow, a widow with no children, didn't spell out how she wanted to be buried.
Two nieces who inherited nothing, but were among the 83-year-old Morrow's few surviving relatives, decided on a grand send-off. They would buy a $51,000 solid-bronze casket, fly it to California, pay a local funeral director to escort it, and bury Aunt Ruth in a famous Hollywood Hills cemetery where Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Telly Savalas, Liberace and other stars are buried.
The price for the November funeral was $64,089.76. The average cost of an Iowa funeral is $8,514.
Alarmed by the hefty bill, the executor of Morrow's estate, Joanne Scroggie, a former Bedford senior center worker who knew Morrow to be a frugal woman, couldn't bring herself to write the check.
Scroggie asked the Taylor County probate court to rule on payment.
Some of the heirs - Morrow bequeathed money to help her church, Iowa Public Television, the poor, stray pets, wildlife protection, blindness, needy boys and girls, and fighting cancer and diseases of the heart and lungs - questioned whether their money was misspent.
Five groups made formal protests to the court.
"We knew Ruth to be a quiet, sensitive and faithful Christian steward," wrote Charles Dukes and Betty Longfellow, trustees at Bedford United Methodist Church, to which Morrow left the biggest chunk of money. "Our primary concern is that the casket expense, the need for any escort, and the escort expense are not sensitive to Ruth's lifestyle as we were privileged to know it."
The expensive funeral, as well as the court drama, has Bedford, population 1,620, abuzz. Was it a case of sour grapes for the nieces? Were they trying to get revenge on Morrow by blowing as much of her money as possible?
Absolutely not, said the nieces, Reta Verlee Diggs, 67, and Geraldine Klakken, 63.
The funeral was exactly what Morrow would've wanted, said Diggs, of Clarinda.
Morrow was born in rural Hepburn and graduated from Clarinda High School, but lived in California most of her adult life, they said. She was married in San Bernardino in 1951, and when her husband died in 1973, she buried him at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills.
"She wanted the very best of everything there was," said Klakken, who lives in Gravity. "She always told us that, and I know she bought the very best brands."
Morrow's will is her only voice.
I direct that the expenses of my last illness and funeral and then any other just and lawful debts which I may owe at the time of my death be paid as soon as my Executor has received funds from my estate and can properly pay them.
Diggs said Morrow had told her relatives they would not inherit any of her wealth, so when they read her will after her death, it was not a surprise.
"She was that kind of person," Diggs said. "Everything was hers, and nobody else was going to get it. Doesn't make any difference to me."
Several of Morrow's friends said she drove a 1988 Oldsmobile worth less than $1,000. She wore cardigan sweaters over simple cotton dresses. Her house in Bedford was an 1,100-square-foot salmon-pink split-level assessed at $73,000, county records show.
In the past, when Morrow was less frail, she fired up the wood stove in the living room to keep the heating bills down, said her pastor, the Rev. William Ballard.
"She was careful with her money, but very compassionate and generous," Ballard said.
Morrow had $700,000 in savings and investments when she moved back to Taylor County in 1989, shortly after her retirement as a bookkeeper for Lockheed Aircraft Corp. in Burbank.
Ballard said she lamented that her interest earnings left little to share with the church and charities.
I leave all the rest, residue and remainder of my Estate to the following named beneficiaries . . . .
An Oklahoma-based lawyer for the American Cancer Society wrote a letter to the court stating: "It appears highly questionable that Ms. Morrow would have desired to be buried in a luxurious casket costing $51,000."
At Eickemeyer Funeral Chapel in Bedford, Morrow's nieces chose a casket called the Promethean. The bronze casket, manufactured by Batesville, comes with 14-karat gold hardware, a plush velvet interior and a special safe for storing mementos.
Owner Jay Eickemeyer said neither Klakken nor Diggs seemed upset about not inheriting money.
"They were having the same thoughts as anyone else that finds their aunt dead," Eickemeyer said. "It was just a standard arrangement process, but because this lady was actually from Hollywood, that was their reference point."
The nieces described the funeral arrangements for their uncle, Kenneth Morrow.
"The girls thought if that's what she did for him, that's what she wanted for herself," Eickemeyer said. "It wasn't like, 'Let's get the most expensive casket.' It was well thought out."
Eickemeyer suggested someone accompany the body to California because there were no known friends or relatives there. After considering it, the nieces asked him to do it.
An Internet search shows other funeral homes sell the Promethean for $18,000 to $25,000. Eickemeyer sold it for three times the $17,000 wholesale price.
He has since agreed to slash the price of Morrow's funeral by an amount he declined to disclose.
A hearing last month in Taylor County was canceled while the 10 heirs consider the proposed settlement. As of Wednesday, all of the heirs had not yet received a copy. A probate judge will make the final ruling.
Signed at Clarinda, Iowa, this 30th day of August, 1994. Ruth W. Morrow.
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