THE COST OF DYING: FUNERAL BUSINESS IS $10 BILLION INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES

The cost of dying, like the cost of consumer products, increases about 3 percent a year.

The average cost of a funeral today is $4,624, according to the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD).

That does not include final disposition and memorialization, said an NAFD spokesman. "This can add a lot, or a little to the final cost, depending on the wishes of the family."

The least expensive funeral available, with a pine casket, no visitation or service, would be about $900. The cost can range to several thousand dollars.

The funeral business is a $10 billion industry in the U.S.

Funeral costs can vary widely, say NAFD officials and local funeral directors.

However, consumers have control of how much they spend, say Bruce Dockins of McCombs Funeral Home, Walter Joe "Doc" Ford of Ford & Sons Funeral Home and William Kuss of Lorberg

Funeral directors will work to meet individuals' personal wishes while staying within their financial means, said Robert Harden, NFDA Executive Director.

Dockins, Ford and Kuss agree.

Costs vary depending on the services and merchandise selections, said Dockins.

That can run more or less than the national average.

Under Federal Trade Commission regulations, funeral directors provide a general price list of itemized costs of all options offered by funeral homes at the time of arrangements.

The family knows exactly what the services will cost in advance, said Ford.

The $4,634 average goes to about $6,500 by the time final disposition is added, according to the NFDA. This includes the cost of cemetery space, crypts, monuments, cremation, urns and other final disposition costs.

An example of the variation of costs can be observed on a list provided by a local funeral home. Caskets can range in price from $495 for a cloth-covered casket to $7,500 for solid mahogany to almost $9,000 for solid bronze.

Vaults can range from a wooden box at $250 to a solid copper vault ranging from $8,000 to $13,000. Cremation charges range from $1,250 to $2,130 and containers range from $1,125 to $1,755.

There are more than 22,500 funeral homes in the U.S., with approximately 45,000 licensed funeral directors and another 89,000 funeral service and crematory personnel.

The average funeral home handles 149 services a year.

Although funeral costs have increased an average of 3 to 4 percent a year, the average funeral home profit margin has declined, due to higher cost of merchandise and services not passed on to the consumer.

The profit margin in 1974 was 14 percent. A decade later, in 1994, the profit margin was less than 10 (9.24) percent.

Funeral homes are plentiful in the U.S., with 85 percent of the operations family-owned and averaging 63 years in the business.

A stark contrast to the U.S. funeral industry is Russia. There, funeral parlors are rare. Almost all Russian burials are performed by a state monopoly, named Ritual, which sells coffins and wreaths, rents buses as hearses, does embalming and operates graveyards.

The percentage of family operations in the U.S. is shrinking as small chains and individual facilities are being purchased by large investor-owned chains.

One large Canadian chain owns more than 3,700 funeral homes and 600 cemeteries around the world, A U.S. chain headquartered in Houston, Texas, has 2,821 funeral homes and 331 cemeteries. A New Orleans chain has 150 funeral homes and 62 cemeteries in 22 states.

More and more children of funeral directors are not taking over the company business, said Harden. This, along with the fact that some big chains offer lucrative buyout offers, could decrease that 85 percent figure even more in the future.

After holding steady for years at about eight deaths per thousand, the U.S. death rate has begun to inch up, by about one percent year as baby boomers start approaching their golden years.

This has attracted investors to the business, creating a ready flow of cash or acquisition-minded companies. There is, after all, an assured customer base.

More than 2.3 million deaths -- 8.8 per thousand -- were reported in 1994. That figure grew to about 3 million in 1995.

There are more than 25 funeral homes in the Southeast Missourian newspaper coverage area, four of them in Cape Girardeau, including two locations by family-owned Ford & Sons Funeral Home & Monument Co.

Ford & Sons was founded 47 years ago, in 1949, as Ford-Young Funeral Home, and became Ford and Son in 1957. Walter Joe Ford is president of the business, which became Ford and Sons when his sons, Cliff and Kevin, joined the operation.

The company acquired Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery in 1984 and has since added a mausoleum which contains more than 600 crypts. Ford & Sons have two operations at Cape Girardeau -- Ford & Sons Mount Auburn Chapel, 1001 N. Mount Auburn Road and Ford & Sons Sprigg Street Chapel at 118 S. Sprigg -- and one at Benton.

In recent years a number of people have selected cremation.

As many as 21 percent of families are selecting cremation, said a spokesman for the Cremation Association of North America, adding that the total "could reach 40 percent over the next 15 years."

"We've noticed a small increase in cremations in Cape Girardeau," said Ford. "But, overall, this part of the country is still going with the traditional funeral."

McCombs Funeral Home Inc., a Jackson institution for almost 90 years, expanded to Cape Girardeau last year at 1425 Kurre Lane.

Since opening here, McCombs has also opened a monument display yard at the new funeral home.

McCombs Funeral Home is the oldest funeral home in Cape Girardeau County, incorporated in 1906 by John William McCombs Jr. and Emma C. McCombs.

The McCombs, in March 1906, purchased the Bartels and Schmuke Furniture and Undertaking Co., renaming the company McCombs Furniture and Undertaking Co., with Mr. McCombs as president.

Bruce Dockins, one of the current owners, has been in the business since 1956, and a partner since 1959.

A new McCombs Funeral Home was built in Jackson in 1971, and the company's furniture store was sold in 1976.

Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel, one of the oldest businesses in Cape Girardeau under the same name, is located in a former church building in Cape Girardeau.

The site, at 829 N. West End Blvd., is the fourth for the business since it was founded in 1910.

The facility, a former church built in the mid-1950s, previously housed First Christian Church and includes two chapels.

William H. Kuss, James H. Kuss and Betty Kuss became owners of Lorberg Funeral Home in 1989. All are funeral directors and work in the business full-time.

The funeral home was founded by Martin G. Lorberg and a partner, Jacob LaCroix, in 1910 as Harrig Furniture and Undertaking. Six months later, Lorberg purchased his partner's interest in the company, which was first situated at Good Hope and Frederick and became known as Lorberg Furniture and Undertaking Co.

The business later moved to the 600 block of Good Hope, and in 1920, to 215 S. Sprigg. During the late 1920s the business separated its funeral and furniture operations, moving to 433 S. Sprigg.

WHAT DOES A FUNERAL COST?

Area Funeral Homes

25 companies, 42 facilities

Ford & Sons Funeral Home, three locations -- at 1001 Mt. Auburn Road and 118 S. Sprigg in Cape Girardeau, and at Benton.

Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel, 829 N. West End Blvd., Cape Girardeau

Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel, five locations -- Scott City, Sikeston, Benton, Oran, Chaffee.

McCombs Funeral Home, two locations -- 1425 Kurre Lane in Cape Girardeau and 640 W. Independence, Jackson.

Cracraft-Miller Funeral Home, 708 W. Main, Jackson.

Liley Funeral Home, two locations -- Marble Hill and Patton.

Shelby Funeral Home, East Prairie.

McMikle Funeral Home, Charleston.

Sparks Funeral Home, Charleston.

Morgan Funeral Home, Advance.

Hutchins Funeral Home, Marble Hill.

Barkett Funeral Home, three locations -- Cairo, Ill., Mounds, Ill., and Mound City, Ill.

Crain Funeral Home, four locations -- Dongola, Ill., Anna, Ill., Ullin, Ill. Tamms, Ill.

Young & Sons Funeral Home, Perryville.

Miller Family Funeral Home, Perryville.

Jones Funeral Home, two locations -- Villa Ridge, Ill., and Tamms, Ill.

Hileman & Parr Funeral Service, Jonesboro, Ill.

Nunnelee Funeral Home, Sikeston.

Ponder Funeral Home, Sikeston.

Chiles-Cooper Funeral Home, Bloomfield.

Rainey Funeral Home, Dexter.

Watkins & Sons Funeral Home, four locations -- Dexter, Puxico, Parma and Morehouse.

Lutz & Rendleman Funeral Home, Anna, Ill.

Morgan-Sifford Funeral Home, Puxico.

Algee Memorial Chapel, Cairo, Ill.

National average costs

The average price of funeral services, based on a 1996 survey of 1,749 funeral homes, by the National Funeral Directors of America.

-- Casket, $2,146.05.

-- Professional service charges, $1,025.09.

-- Embalming, $343.27

-- Visitation or viewing, $292.19.

-- Hearse (local), $154.78.

-- Other preparation (cosmetology), $128.92.

-- Transfer to funeral home, $124.94.

-- Service care for van, $76.34.

-- Acknowledgement cards, $25.47

-- Total: $4,624.52.

Above costs does not include final disposition costs of vault, cemetery, monument, marker, or miscellaneous items such as flowers, burial clothing, or newspaper notices.

Funeral costs over the past 40 years

1957, $646.

1958, $661

1959, $697

1960, $708

1962, $763.

1967, $850.

1970, $983

1972, $1,097

1977, $1,1412

1990, $1,809

1982, 2,247

1987, (no survey)

1989, $3,392.

1990, (no survey)

1991, 3,742.

1992, $4,207

1993, $4,077

1994, $4,456

1995, $4624.