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Tennessee 'Natural' Burial Ground Will Offer A Simpler Farewell — Casket Optional

An example of an all-natural, biodegradable casket is arranged by Larkspur Conservation's executive director, John Christian Phifer Courtesy of John Christian Phifer hide caption

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Courtesy of John Christian Phifer

National

Tennessee 'Natural' Burial Ground Will Offer A Simpler Farewell — Casket Optional

Larkspur Conservation features trails, picnic tables, a meadow — and, soon, "natural" burial plots. The founders hope the space will offer a more meaningful and less expensive way to say goodbye.

Tennessee 'Natural' Burial Ground Will Offer A Simpler Farewell — Casket Optional

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Illinois Bishop Decrees No Communion, Funeral Rites For Same-Sex Spouses

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Ill., has barred priests from performing sacraments for people in same-sex marriages. Above, Paprocki testifies against an Illinois same-sex marriage bill in 2013. Seth Perlman/AP hide caption

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Seth Perlman/AP

The Two-Way

Illinois Bishop Decrees No Communion, Funeral Rites For Same-Sex Spouses

Bishop Thomas Paprocki is telling priests in his diocese not to offer sacraments to people in same-sex marriages. A Catholic LGBT group calls the decree "mean-spirited and unchristian in the extreme."

Death Talk Is Cool At This Festival

A chalkboard "bucket list" stirred imaginations and got people talking at an Indianapolis festival designed to help make conversations about death easier. Jake Harper/WFYI hide caption

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Jake Harper/WFYI

Shots - Health News

Death Talk Is Cool At This Festival

WFYI Public Radio

How to make thinking about death less somber? Hold a festival! Indianapolis did. Through art, film and book talks, residents explored everything from bucket lists to advance directives and cremation.

Death Talk Is Cool At This Festival

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'Today We Are His Family': Teen Volunteers Mourn Those Who Died Alone

Brendan McInerney (front, from left), Noah Piou, Emmett Dalton and their fellow students from Roxbury Latin boys' school carry the casket of a man who was left unclaimed by family to a grave site in Fairview Cemetery on Friday. Kayana Szymczak for NPR hide caption

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Kayana Szymczak for NPR

National

'Today We Are His Family': Teen Volunteers Mourn Those Who Died Alone

When a body goes unclaimed in Boston, it may receive a burial at a city cemetery. Students at a nearby boys' school are among those who volunteer to be pallbearers for people they've never met.

'Today We Are His Family': Teen Volunteers Mourn Those Who Died Alone

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Movies

Egypt Mourns Omar Sharif, Its Homegrown Cinema Star

The international film star, best known for Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence Of Arabia, represented a bygone era for many Egyptians — though not many could get to his funeral on Sunday.

Egypt Mourns Omar Sharif, Its Homegrown Cinema Star

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LA's Unclaimed Dead Receive Prayers, And A Final Resting Place

County employees, media and mourners gather for the ceremony honoring the 1,489 people whose unclaimed remains are being buried in the LA County Cemetery this year. Arun Rath/NPR hide caption

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Arun Rath/NPR

National

LA's Unclaimed Dead Receive Prayers, And A Final Resting Place

Every year since 1896, Los Angeles County has buried the cremated remains of people who die in the region, but whose bodies are never claimed. This year, the county buried the remains of 1,489 people.

LA's Unclaimed Dead Receive Prayers, And A Final Resting Place

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Alain Locke, Whose Ashes Were Found In University Archives, Is Buried

Alain Locke is buried at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. He lies near many of the nation's early congressmen and next to the first director of the Smithsonian's Museum of African Art. Adam Cole/NPR hide caption

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Code Switch

Alain Locke, Whose Ashes Were Found In University Archives, Is Buried

The author and philosopher is widely known as the father of the Harlem Renaissance. But it is not widely known that Locke, who died 60 years ago, was never buried.

Alain Locke, Whose Ashes Were Found In University Archives, Is Buried

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Rome And Church Officials Block Nazi War Criminal's Burial

Former SS Captain Erich Priebke, seen here in Rome during his war crimes trial in 1996, died Friday at age 100. Authorities in Rome, Germany, and Argentina have rejected becoming his final resting place. Plinio Lepri/AP hide caption

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Plinio Lepri/AP

The Two-Way

Rome And Church Officials Block Nazi War Criminal's Burial

Authorities in Rome, Germany, and Argentina have rejected becoming the final resting place for Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, who died Friday at 100. In an "ambush" street interview in 1994, Priebke famously told ABC's Sam Donaldson, "You are not a gentleman."