For this end-of-year post, we decided to look at a few notable people who died this year and chose cremation for their disposition.

In this pandemic era, it’s all too common for memorial services to be delayed due to difficulties in traveling, concerns about gathering, and the effect of overwhelming grief on top of day-to-day mental strain. For some of the famous people in this list—and countless others famous and not — funeral services were “pending” while families figured out how to honor a life at a time when bringing everyone who mourns them together is so difficult.

In many cases, these memorials were held outside or limited to just a few friends and family. More than ever, virtual remembrances were vitally important to convey how much someone touched lives from miles away.

Although stories and statistics show that people were not driven to cremation during the pandemic, cremation is often seen as a way of extending the timeline. Delaying decisions about memorial services and permanent placement can be easier when you can keep your loved one in your care in the meantime. That’s why, at the very end of this post, you’ll read about two celebrities who found a permanent resting place years after they died.
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Celebrity entries appear in alphabetical order.

​SEPTEMBER 30, 1980 – NOVEMBER 28, 2021

Virgil Abloh broke boundaries as the first black Creative Director of Men’s Wear at world-renowned fashion house Louis Vuitton and brought pop culture to haute couture. His final collection appeared on the runway just days after his death from a rare heart cancer. The Miami fashion show that he had designed became a memorial service for 1,500 friends, family, collaborators, colleagues, media, and others on November 30th complete with videos, performances, and a statue in his likeness. After the careful planning he had done, “he was distraught not to be here to share it in person.”
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A smaller memorial service was held December 6th at the Museum of Contemporary Art in his hometown of Chicago with close friends sharing what he meant to them. In Chicago and across the world, he was remembered by Louis Vuitton via boutique windows covered with colorful panels proclaiming simply and meaningfully “Virgil was here.”

​SEPTEMBER 16, 1934 – MARCH 22, 2021

​OCTOBER 31, 1930 – APRIL 28, 2021

Michael Collins is best known as the pilot for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, but he worked hard to “prevent the rest of my life from being an anticlimax.” Collins dedicated his leadership in support of space exploration and the people who achieve greatness and inspire future generations, and played an integral role in founding the National Air and Space Museum.
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On April 30th, the Kennedy Space Center hosted a memorial ceremony at the U.S. Astronauts Hall of Fame for the public to gather and remember his achievements. There, the air and space community, friends, family, colleagues, and the public honored his many contributions to Earth and space.

​MARCH 18, 1936 – NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Frederik Willem “FW” de Klerk served as the 7th President of South Africa and the final president of the Apartheid era. While he is credited with working to end Apartheid and relinquishing the presidency to Nelson Mandela in 1994, his legacy is tainted as a central figure in an oppressive regime.
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As a result of this complicated legacy, his family eschewed a state funeral for a private funeral, cremation, and burial in an undisclosed location after his death, without including members of the media or the public. Instead, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a four-day mourning period and flags flown at half-mast until his cremation. On December 12th, de Klerk was recognized in a state memorial service where family shared their love and leaders honored his legacy.

​MAY 23, 1954 – MARCH 13, 2021

Marvin Nathaniel Hagler is regarded as one of the top fighters in the history of boxing with 67 professional matches, earning 62 wins in his 14-year career. The undisputed World Middleweight Champion from 1980 until 1987, Hagler officially changed his name to Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1982.
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“Marvin didn’t want a funeral. He didn’t want a wake. He wanted to be cremated,” his mother explained. Massachusetts chose to honor Hagler in his childhood hometown of Brockton – the City of Champions – on May 23rd. Declared as Marvelous Marvin Hagler Day, the public memorial service attracted celebrities and members of the public to celebrate his life and honor his memory. Brockton has announced that a statue will be raised to remember him.

​OCTOBER 17, 1959 – SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Norman Gene Macdonald’s death from cancer took many people by surprise as the comedian, writer, and actor was a famously private person. But while people may not be certain what age he really was, they will always remember his comedy — which they did by sharing clips and sketches from stand-up and SNL throughout his life. His family gathered on September 21st to remember him in a private service, and it’s fair to assume that they honored him as he joked they should: “When I have my funeral, and most funerals are crying and sad… that’s what I’d like. I’ve heard of other ones: ‘Let’s have a party!’ Whoa! No. There will be a lot of party days later, but right now I’m dead. People should be talking, crying.”
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One of Macdonald’s most famous impressions during his time on SNL was portraying presidential hopeful Senator Bob Dole. In good humor, Dole had joined him onstage and in Macdonald’s memory shared a photo from the moment saying that “Bob Dole will miss Norm Macdonald.” Coincidentally, Dole died fewer than three months later on December 5th.

​JUNE 3, 1936 – MARCH 25, 2021

Larry Jeff McMurtry wrote about what he knew: ranching and Texas. With more than thirty novels including Horseman, Pass By and Lonesome Dove, forty screenplays (including Brokeback Mountain), and more, he shaped the way people see Texas today. He also owned a second-hand bookstore in his hometown Archer City. When asked, he imagined his urn sitting on its shelves – an unobtrusive memorial that would encourage visitors to buy more books – though he also owned a plot in neighboring Wichita Falls.
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An atheist, McMurtry was not interested in marking his death publicly, but his colleagues disagreed: “If we didn’t do this,” said George Getschow, cofounder of the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, “we would have missed an opportunity to celebrate Texas’s most influential writer.” So, on October 9th they gathered at the site of The Last Picture Show to host Larry McMurty: Reflections on a Minor Regional Novelist (an inside joke for the award-winning internationally recognized writer) to visit the places in Archer City that appeared throughout his work, screen his films, and share memories and favorite passages to honor his legacy and the mark he left on Texas.

​SEPTEMBER 27, 1972 – MARCH 29, 2021

​Bibian Mentel was a rising star in Dutch snowboarding, ready to compete in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics when a bone tumor required amputation of her right leg below the knee. Many thought this would signal the end of her career, but seven months later she took the next Dutch snowboarding championship and began lobbying the Paralympics to add snowboarding to their games. When they debuted the sport in 2014, she took the gold. The bone cancer continued to return and spread throughout her body requiring years of therapy and surgery, but she won two gold medals in the 2018 Paralympics and continued to compete until losing the battle to cancer this year.
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At the 2021 games, the Paralympics honored her memory with a video tribute to her accomplishments and indefatigable spirit. Her cremation and service were kept small for safety, but admirers served as honor guard to the hearse carrying her flower-laden casket to the crematorium. Her foundation, committed to motivating people with mental and physical challenges, will help ensure her memory and good works will continue.

​DECEMBER 13, 1929 – FEBRUARY 5, 2021

​Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer was an award-winning actor of stage and screen. Best known as Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music opposite Julie Andrews, his career spanned seven decades. Lesser known might be his role as Klingon General Chang in the 1991 film Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country and again in 2000 for the video game Star Trek: Klingon Academy. While the role was perhaps not Oscar-recognized, Trekkers remain his devoted fans. Players gathered virtually across the many worlds of the games to honor and pay tribute to one of the greatest Klingon warriors.

​JULY 30, 1978 - JANUARY 7, 2021

Brian David Sicknick does not truly fit on this list of celebrities like the others. By all accounts, he was a private individual, devoted to his family, dogs, and country after serving in the National Guard before being honorably discharged in 2003. Then, he joined the United States Capitol Police in 2008 in the First Responders Unit.
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Officer Sicknick fell in the line of duty while defending the Capitol on January 6th. He is included in this list of notable cremations since his remains were the first to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda in an urn rather than a casket. Just the fifth civilian to lie in honor, his urn and flag were respected in the rotunda on February 2nd before interment in a columbarium niche in Arlington National Cemetery.

​JANUARY 31, 1941 – MARCH 24, 2021

​OCTOBER 2005 – NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Winter captured hearts as the bottlenose dolphin with the prosthetic tail. The star of her own biopic, its sequel, and related books, her story of perseverance through disability and chronic illness inspired people and drew fans to her tank in the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Unfortunately, the Aquarium announced that gastrointestinal complications cut her life short just 16 years after her rescue. 
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On November 20th, the Aquarium hosted a memorial in front of her tank and streamed the service to her fans worldwide. In January 2022, the Aquarium plans to open a virtual reality experience with Winter that will allow visitors to swim with her as she was in life. The Aquarium will build a permanent memorial to her at their facility, but they plan to scatter Winter’s cremated remains in the Gulf of Mexico: “Returning Winter to her natural home is a poetic ending to her 16-year journey and we couldn’t think of a better way to lay her spirit to rest.”

​FEBRUARY 6, 1917 – DECEMBER 18, 2016

​FEBRUARY 11, 1936 – SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Catch up on posts from other years: 2019 ● 2021 ● 2022 ● 2023 ● 2024

Earlier this year, our Foundation Partners marketing team embarked on a three-pronged research project to better understand the online habits of the post-COVID deathcare consumer. After conducting hundreds of online surveys, one-on-one interviews and focus groups, we partnered with CANA in November 2021 to present the results in a webinar entitled, “How Consumer Attitudes Toward Online Deathcare are Changing.” Our presentation team included Sally Camm, whose firm Astound Commerce conducted the research, Luke Frieberg, president of eFuneral, Foundation Partners’ Vice President of Marketing Scott Ankerholz and me.

Our panel of digital marketing experts shared five broad consumer trends impacting deathcare and outlined steps you can take today to stay ahead of the curve. If you missed it, no worries; simply click here to watch the recording and download the slidedeck.

After hundreds of surveys and conversations, five key trends emerged that are impacting the deathcare purchase journey.

1. WELLNESS
Consumers are increasingly focused on wellness, which encompasses not just physical but mental, spiritual and environmental concerns as well. As a result, younger consumers (under 45) want to engage in a different, more positive conversation about death and deathcare. In general, they have a broader definition of death preparedness than previous generations. Instead of who will get what, the conversation is more about how they can have their affairs in order — emotionally, spiritually and relationship-wise — so they can enjoy their lives now and ease the burden on family members.
With this in mind, you may want to expand your preneed marketing efforts to include younger families. Additionally, your services don’t have to stop after memorialization or permanent placement services are done. Today’s families appreciate aftercare services, like grief support, assistance obtaining death certificates and other “concierge” services that help them navigate the myriad of tasks required to close the affairs of a loved one.

2. INDIVIDUALITY
As the focus on religious funeral services wanes in the U.S., families are opting for services that celebrate the life and uniqueness of the individual. Nearly a third of consumers who completed our online surveys reported that religion did not factor meaningfully into how they considered making funeral arrangements. As more funerals become joyous occasions and celebrations of life, we have the opportunity to unleash our creativity to help families say farewell to loved ones in style. This will create new revenue streams as we reimagine funeral services.

3. TRANSPARENCY
During our in-person interviews with both at-need and preneed consumers, 95 percent cited transparency as one of the major reasons for their choice of a deathcare provider. In their 2020 Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study, The Foresight Companies found that 75 percent of consumers said they want pricing available online and will not do business with providers who are not transparent. Fifty-two percent said they will ONLY do business with companies that provide online pricing options.

But these consumers are not just looking for price transparency; they also want process transparency. Why? Because process transparency puts them in charge and, during the highly stressful at-need time, it allows them to maintain some semblance of control when their lives have been changed forever. Consumers have become accustomed to tracking their online transactions and their expectations during the deathcare journey are no different. Deathcare providers who can offer up-to-the-minute notifications of things, like when loved ones will be cremated and when those remains will be ready for delivery or pick-up, will have an advantage over their competition.

4. OMNICHANNEL SERVICE
Today’s consumers want an integrated, seamless journey across digital and physical experiences – online, by phone and in person. While recent consumers of deathcare services report that in-person remains their preferred method of arranging, we saw a greater willingness among those who have not yet purchased to turn to online arrangement options.

Luke Frieberg shared a case study in which an eFuneral partner encouraged families to review their options on their website before the arrangement meeting. Some of these families completed their purchases on the website, while others came into the arrangement meeting with more clarity around their decisions. Of those families that completed their purchases online, 93 percent upgraded the casket generating additional revenue. Overall, the cost of arrangements made online were 20 percent higher compared to purely in-person meetings and resulted in additional revenue. The firm also reported that families were more relaxed and that funeral directors had a better experience when meeting in person after providing this online option.
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5. TIME STARVATION
Time, and the lack of it, was a primary concern in our interviews, particularly among the at-need consumer. At a time of high stress, especially during COVID, consumers look for us to remove the friction from the decision-making process and to do it in a timeframe that suits them. One of the key ways consumers save time is by doing online research themselves to narrow the selections before they call. Our online cremation consumer survey also showed that both cremation users, and non-cremation users, value the convenience of online arrangements and the ability to browse options on their own terms. Both consumer groups reported that they were either “somewhat satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their experience.