Page A38 JUNE 2022 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A Scan QR for our website 1-888-792-9315 • mymortuarycooler.com Mortuary Coolers starting at $5,899 Mortuary Coolers www.derma-pro.net sales@derma-pro.net Nadene Cover-Up Cosmetics Ltd. A name you know. . . . . . Products you trust 800-531-9744 Fax 903-641-0383 Jim Kurtz Alice Adams Appropriate to Greatness: Caskets of the Rich and Famous Written, researched and photographed by Alice Adams and Jim Kurtz There have been many good books written about the deaths of the rich and famous. However, none have taken the viewpoint of the funeral service professional or cemeterian. In this series, we hope to accomplish exactly that with the little-known details, obscure facts and citations we have found in our research. We’re excited to share our findings. An award-winning writer, Alice Adams has chronicled the men and women in funeral service for more than two decades. “My goal has always been to recognize funeral directors and cemeterians who selflessly assist families during times of their darkest grief,” she said. Since 2018, Alice has teamed with fellow historian and photographer Jim Kurtz to tracing the much ignored and neglected beginnings of the funeral service profession. Adams resides in Dripping Springs, Texas, where she enjoys her children, four grandchildren, Cassie, the Black Lab and two cats – all three rescues. Jim Kurtz has been a funeral director in Texas since 1973 and is president of TFDA’s North Texas Region. He is a historian and educator, he founded the Jim Kurtz Museum of Funeral History and archives in Dallas, Texas. F U N E R A L H O M E & C E M E T E R Y N E W S w w w . N o m i s P u b l i c a t i o n s . c o m Monthly Columnsonline at From Little Leaguers to Big Leaguers, shouts of “Play Ball!” mark the start of another baseball season, with every player focusing on a berth in the next World Series. As spring training continues, it’s a perfect time to remember one of the super stars of American professional baseball: Lou Brock. Born as the seventh of nine children into a family of sharecroppers in El Dorado, Arkansas, Lou Brock grew up in rural Louisiana. Although his family had little money, he said that he never felt poor. As he would later explain, “If you don’t have something, you don’t miss it.” Like his friends at school, Brock grew up as a fan of Brooklyn Dodgers role models like Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella, but had no interest in playing organized baseball until his junior year in high school. He said most of his early baseball education came from listening to St. Louis Cardinal’s radio broadcaster Harry Caray describe individual batter’s stances and the way major leaguers stood at the plate. After high school, Lou received academic assistance to attend Southern University in Baton Rouge, but when a low grade in his first semester meant the possibility of losing his scholarship, he decided to try out for the school’s baseball team to secure an athletic scholarship. After improving his batting average to a .500 during his junior year at Southern University, Brock helped his team win the NAIA baseball championship. Brock was selected to play for the U.S. at the 1959 Pan American Games. Like most major league standouts, Brock’s early career was fairly obscure. Looking for a good fit for himself, he tried out for the Chicago Cubs and was assigned to play with the St. Cloud, Minnesota Rox, where he won the 1961 Northern League batting championship with a .361 batting average. From there, Brock became the Chicago Cub’s regular center fielder at the end of the 1961 season, an inauspicious beginning to what would become a 19year career in Major League Baseball. With the Cubs, Brock also was one of four players to hit a home run into the center-field bleachers at the old Polo Grounds in New York City since its 1923 reconstruction. Brock had great speed and base running instincts, but the young right fielder failed to impress the Cubs management, hitting for only a combined .260 average over his first two seasons. In 1964, the Cubs made Brock part of a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals, a trade that ranks as the greatest in Cardinals franchise history. As a Cardinal, Brock was best known for his base stealing, and he once held the major league career and single-season records for stolen bases. He was so synonymous with base-stealLouis C. Brock Born June 18, 1939 El Dorado, Arkansas Died September 6, 2020 St. Charles, Missouri ing that in 1978 he became the first major leaguer to have an award named for him while still active: the Lou Brock Award, for the National League’s leader in steals. For Brock, base-stealing was an art form and a kind of warfare. Brock also was an All-Star for six seasons and a National League (NL) stolen base leader for eight seasons. He led the NL in doubles and triples in 1968. He also led the NL in singles in 1972, and was the runner-up for the NLMost Valuable Player Award in 1974. He is one of 32 players to hit 3,000 hits or more and has the second most stolen bases in MLB history. Brock spent 16 of his 19-year career as a left fielder for the Cards and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame (as a 1st ballot inductee) in 1985, and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame. After his death on September 6, 2020 (Brock was 81), there were several memorial services, tributes and wreath-laying at his statue outside of Busch Stadium. The final service was at Greater Grace Church in Ferguson, Missouri, on Saturday, September 12, 2020, attended by 300 socially-distanced family and friends. As St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports writer Rick Hummel reported, “Brock gained tribute not only for his National League record 938 stolen bases and his 3,023 hits, but for his humanitarian work off the field and for his ministry, a calling he found later in life Former teammate Ted Simmons remembered two things about Brock: “First was his vibrant smile. Whenever you were in a room with Lou, you couldn’t miss it – the biggest, brightest, most vibrant smile on earth,” Simmons said. “The other was that he was surely hurt numerous times, but never once in my life did I know he was playing hurt.” “A player like Brock comes along once in a generation,” said Ken Boyer, Brock’s teammate and manager. “If that often.” “At the end of the final funeral service,” the newspaper writer reported, “Mrs. Brock, whose eyesight was failing but her voice was not, emotionally spoke of her husband’s white minister’s robe being retired much as his No. 20 was retired by the Cardinals 35 years ago. The robe was placed in the casket before it was closed and moved to the hearse, which first would go to Busch Stadium and then to entombment at Bellerive Heritage Gardens in Creve Coeur, Missouri. “Outside the stadium, Jackie Brock, removing her mask, briefly said, “To all Cardinal Nation, Lou says he loves you and he’ll see you in glory.” The crowd predictably yelled, “Looooooooouuuuuu,” as Mrs. Brock re-affixed her mask and walked back to the limousine. Earlier, as she finished her re- marks at the church, Jackie Brock said her husband “has finished his course. And he has served well.” NEWS Educational CONTINUED Announcing the Reduction of Tuition and Time It Takes to Complete Celebrant Training Program MURRIETA,CA—There has been a growing need for funeral celebrants in recent years and the Center for Celebrant Training has the ideal program to acquire the tools needed to take on this role. Recently they have improved the program by making it easier to complete more affordable. It’s the same first-class program but it can now be completed in less than ten weeks and the tuition has been significantly reduced. The method of study is self-directive, which means you can work at your own pace. Even though it is self-directive, you have a one-onone connection with a competent instructor. Because the program is completely online, there are no start dates or due dates for assignments. Not only is the program convenient, but it is also flexible. Students are given the opportunity to adapt the program to their particular goals, whether they plan to conduct services within a specific faith community, or a denominational, nondenominational, or nonreligious community, or all of the above. This is achieved by allowing for variations of service design pertinent to the celebrant’s focus. Upon completion of the program, students receive a Funeral Celebrant Certificate awarded by Global Ministries University, with whom the Center is affiliated. The certificate validates the celebrant’s formal training and credibility. Visit www.becomeacelebrant.org to learn more.
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