Last night, we held the first Movie Night at a funeral home and it was a big success!
FRENCH Funerals-Cremations Rio Rancho Event Center hosted a great group of people who came out to see the film Get Low. This “true tall tale” was based on actual events, the funeral party created and attended by Felix “Bush” Breazeale, held on June 26, 1938. Movie night info and the true story behind Get Low here.
Yes, it’s true. Here’s a picture of his headstone.
According to a Breazeale family website, here’s how Uncle Bush got the idea to hold a living funeral:
In the fall of 1937, one member of the Breazeale clan had an idea that would bring him world fame in less than a year. Seventy-three year old, Felix Bushaloo Breazeale, widely known as Uncle Bush, in conversation with a local businessman, was asked what plan he had for a large, prime black walnut tree that was growing near his home. “Gonna make my coffin out of it,” was his straightforward response.
Felix Bush Breazeale at his living funeral.
That lead into a discussion of death, dying, funerals, and funeral services. At one point the businessman commented, “Isn’t it a shame that we never know what is going to be said about us at our funeral?”
Further talks lead the two to conclude that having one’s funeral while one was still alive was a sound idea. Uncle Bush mulled it over for a while and decided it was such a fine idea that he was going to arrange to have his own funeral just as soon as he could finish building his coffin.
So, he felled the big black walnut tree, had it milled into boards, and began constructing his final resting place. The more he worked on it, the more determined he became. He wanted to hear his own eulogy. By late spring, 1938, everything was in order.