Like Vikings and Jedi: Missouri to allow outdoor cremations

Missouri could become the first state in the nation to legalize outdoor cremations fit for Vikings, some Native American tribes and even Jedi knights.

State lawmakers passed a bill in the just-completed session to allow outdoor cremations at licensed crematoriums or on private sites. Such cremations would require state permits and be under the direction of licensed funeral directors.

Lawmakers called it the “Jedi” bill in reference to a cremation scene in a “Star Wars” movie.

It was a burning issue for state Sen. Jason Holsman, a Kansas City, Missouri, Democrat who sponsored the legislation.

“This is the way that our ancestors took care of their remains,” Holsman told the Kansas City Star. “The Native Americans did it in trees. The Vikings did it in boats.”

He said the bill also benefited from a “huge outdoor cremation” scene in an episode of the “Game of Thrones” television series.

If Gov. Mike Parson signs the bill into law, it would take effect Aug. 28.

But area funeral directors and the Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association predicted Friday there would be little demand for outdoor cremation.

Crestone, Colorado, is the only place in the nation currently where legal outdoor cremations are performed, which are organized by a not-for-profit group.

Walter J. “Doc” Ford of Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau said the experience there indicates little demand for such cremation.

Only 65 outdoor cremations have occurred there over the past dozen years, according to information cited by Ford and the Missouri funeral directors association.

Donald Otto, executive director of the funeral directors association, said if Parson signs the Missouri bill into law, state government will have to develop regulations to implement it.

Otto said he expects the Department of Natural Resources and the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors will have to draft rules governing outdoor cremations, including the permit process.

“Of course, they can’t promulgate the regulations until the law is in place,” he said.

“I do trust the regulatory people on this one that they will come up with reasonable and good regulations to deal with the problem,” Otto said.

The legislation, he said, will ensure such cremations comply with health and safety regulations.

“Nobody wanted people to just take grandpa’s body out to the backyard and do this on their own,” Otto said.

“Presumably, the body will be in a combustible container just like it is in a normal cremation,” Otto said.

He said such cremations would not be “like what you see in the movies.”

Ford, the funeral director, said it is unclear right now just how the regulatory process will work.

“With anything new, there are a lot of unanswered questions,” he said.

Holsman, the legislator, told the Kansas City Star the bill could spur “a cottage industry in Missouri” appealing to individuals who want to be laid to rest “in the old way.”

But Jon Shaffer, director of Crain Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Cape Girardeau, sees little desire by the public for outdoor cremations.

“First of all, it is nothing that I have ever been asked to do,” he said.

While the bill would allow outdoor cremations at Missouri crematoriums, Shaffer doesn’t believe they will occur there.

“I really doubt that you would find any licensed crematoria that would allow it to take place on site,” he said.

Shaffer said Crain Funeral Home has a crematoria on site.

“But it is not like I can put some body in the middle of the parking lot and do cremation,” he said.

Both he and Otto envision outdoor cremations most likely would occur on farmland.

“I don’t think we will see a lot of cremations in people’s backyards,” Shaffer said.

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