2001: OPENING CHUCK'S CASKET AT THE GRAVE - 'Rest And Goodbye'

(10/05/2023)
MANY FUNERAL CUSTOMS FADING IN 21ST CENTURY

By Bob Weaver 2001

Chuck Coon was buried on the Kerby Ridge near the Village of Hur, above his families home on Slider Fork, to rest beside his dad Junior and a brother who died several years ago.

Junior built the cemetery a few years ago for his immediate family, using a commercial fence to surround the beautiful location.

The original settler Harrison Coon built a still standing log cabin in the late 1800's on Coon Ridge, an off-shoot of "The Husk."

The Coons, not unlike the Husks, were stalwart people and strong survivors, who somehow managed to live through the Great Depression, many of them moving to Ohio after World War II.

They are noted for prudent managing, making do and never throwing anything away, flashbacks to the Great Depression.

The Coons are a tight and close family, likely because they needed to cling together to make it through those early years. Most have become successful in many areas of life, a statement to their hard work and perseverance.

It was a notable experience that Chuck's casket was opened at the grave site and family members said their last words to him, much like funerals in the early part of the last century.

Stump Funeral Home graciously extended the time for the final words, some of which rang reverently across the field near Hur.

"Rest and good-bye," they said.