I'm glad they cleaned it up a bit. It was pretty horrible. The last time I visited after coming…read morehome, the military in the 90's, I had no problem, finding my maternal grandmother, and a young man I went to school with. But when I went home about a year ago, it looked decent, but I found that, when I used to be able to practically find both of them blindfolded, I found that their gravestones had been moved. It took me a while to find my friend's gravestone. It was in the general vicinity, but nowhere close to where I knew he was buried. And yes, it took a while to get all the grass around and on top of the to make his name even visible. I have never been able to contact anyone with the number listed., Especially when I found out that, I have a newborn sister, two young cousins and an uncle buried there. I would've liked to know where they are buried, if I could get ahold of someone in the hope they kept good records.

This hillside graveyard named its sections by biblical imagery. Section 1, for example, is the…read moreGarden of the Last Supper. One glance across the space revealed that the grass is not regularly cut. The bottom of the main hill had a monument with the Gospel of St. John 11: 25-26 inscribed. Where the forestry was trying to invade over the fence, the hillsides were dotted with traditional and modern headstones along with presumably flat stones throughout. Some grassy spots looked untouched while others had dirt covering the headstones. I discovered here the tradition of leaving pennies on graves. The sign of rules states the following upon entering: * No perceptual care & not endowed. * No planting. * If you don't not have a marker, you must come before Memorial Day to find a location. This location was nice to visit, but it did not stand out much in comparison to other #BurialSitesKC.

Highland Cemetery is in a fairly hidden location off of Blue Ridge Blvd between the city limits of…read moreKansas City and Independence. Highland was one of KC's first black owned burial grounds founded in 1909. It is a fairly large cemetery that no longer accepts new burials and is ran by the land trust of Jackson County that oversees abandoned properties. The upkeep looked decent for being overseen by an agency that does not specialize in cemetery care. Be careful driving through, my gravel path, turned to a rutted grass path and then just disappeared leaving me to try and turn around in an area that was unsettling to navigate - was I driving on graves? I hope not! Be careful. As a local history buff and a lover of music; my focus was finding the grave of jazz legend and Kansas City native Bennie Moten. It is fairly easy to find due to the shape of the upright stone. The cemetery is just a mile north of the Lincoln Cemetery where Charlie Parker rests eternal, so stop in a pay your respect to both of these legends.

I received a call informing me of the very unexpected death of my father, late afternoon, on…read moreMarch 27th. I called my wife and I left work so we could start the 6 hour drive to Independence. The next morning we started to initiate a plan because my father did not make any arrangements. I was unfamiliar with any local services and relied on faith when I chose Newcomers Noland Road Chapel from my google search. We were able to meet with Don Birney and discuss our options. We really relied on his experience to guide us. What I expected to be a difficult task turned out to be extremely easy and affordable. Don was very compassionate and thorough during his assistance. Since my father was a Veteran, Don informed us of veteran's assistance. We had arrangements completed within an hour. We had many other matters to attend to and Don assured us he would continue to oversee my father's arrangements as well as the death certificate procedure. We returned to Illinois and Don stayed in daily contact with updates. His perseverance with getting the death certificate signed was invaluable. I received my father's remains in a very timely manner. I can't express enough our appreciation and satisfaction with Don and Newcomers. I highly recommend them for your family.

From the owner: Celebrating each life like no other…read more Each one of us is unique with our own story to tell. As North America's largest provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services, Dignity Memorial professionals excel at helping families create meaningful tributes that truly celebrate the lives of the individuals they represent.With an extensive network of more than 2,000 locations throughout the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, Dignity Memorial providers offer families personalized services and advanced-planning options to meet any need. From the simple to the extraordinary, your Dignity Memorial professionals are here to see that your special story is told.

We had a planning appointment with two wonderful ladies from Terrace Park last week. We were not…read moresure what to expect and were pleasantly surprised at how professional yet caring they were. There is no pressure and they leave you with organizational books to keep, regardless of whether or not you choose them as your final resting place. If you have not planned for this, it is a good idea. Last week, a good friends mother passed away quite unexpectedly. It can all be overwhelming if not taken care of in advance.

Making funeral and burial arrangements for my loved one has turned into a complete nightmare. No…read moreone should have to go through this when they're trying to lay their loved one to rest. No one knows what their doing and management is just as bad.

Empathic and took care of several important notifications. Taylor comforted me several times as I…read moream the Executor of our mother's affairs. Thank you$

Carson-Speaks honored my step dad's pre-need plan. It was a plan bought from the man who went…read morebankrupt, and didn't return any of the money and is now in jail. I vaguely remember it in the news about 15 years ago, but heard about it almost every time I talked with my mom. Our first visit with Carson-Speaks was on July 5th. That gave us only a day or so planning cause of July 4th. My stepdad passed on July 3rd. Seriously, though, the team at Carson-Speaks moves fast. We did the regular meet with the funeral home appointment. Arrangements and settings were explained, and selected. No funeral home appointment is joyous or uplifting, even though they call it a celebration. It's really not a celebration, but I appreciate the selling point. The fact that they are selling something was subliminal, and not noticed with our first funeral director. Our first funeral director did a great job. We appointed a celebrant cause there is no religious affiliation. They gave us a choice of poems, 10 pages of poems, one of which was selected to be printed in the program. We went through over 200 poems on July 5th, and returned to Carson-Speaks the 6th with our selection. On the 6th, we met with the appointed celebrant, for more than 2 hours. My stepdad was a war hero, and it was a full military honors funeral. A special award is given in his honor. The first one was presented to us at the funeral, by a speaker I set up and arranged. The connections went smooth, and I was pleased. On July 6th, we had a different funeral director, who reminded me of a salesman. He was okay, but his personality and energy level seemed high strung and inaccurate. But everyone has different personalities. On the day of the funeral, it went smooth, except for one thing that was never explained to us: a picture on the program was missing. When we picked up the flowers and pictures and picture boards I had made on July 6th yesterday,, our easels were missing from our pictures. It was questioned then, about the lack of a picture on the fold out. It was suggested that this be explained to other customers. That's my main complaint. The rest was really nice, with full military honors at the grave site. They thanked us for selecting "Carson-Speaks for our time of need" after the military honors...It's okay, for a selling point. They gave us a flag cover, shell casings, and it was a very honorable event. I would use them again, hopefully not soon. I will request a picture on the program. The programs appear vacant. They provided us thank you notes, which is going to keep me busy today, so I need to get off of Yelp and get started.

The video that made for me was overwhelming a tear jerker! I'll give it a 10 all my families…read moreenjoyed it!Thanks

We schedule our meeting with Dawn to meet with the Director/Owner, Mr. DiMond. Upon our meeting he…read morewas very clear in the pre-need services we were looking for. I can say that here that meets their mission. He provided a breakdown of the cost of direct cremation, which by far is the most economical (affordable) cost in the entire metro. Their services are the same as others, simply meeting the needs of the community of which the business resides. Upon my research of other funeral and cremation businesses, where the line items are the same, it's just location and not necessarily the quality. Just my opinion.

If you have been unfortunate enough to have to make funeral arrangements you have probably had the…read moredispleasure of coming face to face with some to the sleaziest and shameless individuals you might ever meet. Most have no qualms about playing on your grief and weakened state to hit you with markups and up charges. If you are in a place where you can pay attention to details you quickly learn that you should never order anything (flowers, catering, car service, etc) from the funeral home. They tend to average 200% - 800% markups. This is especially true where the casket is concerned. Luckily for me a friend had been though this and pointed me to this business. Direct Casket Outlet despite the sound of its name is a small locally owned business. It is a bit out of the way to find, but worth the trip. The husband and wife that own it handle pretty much everything them selfs so there is little risk of anything falling though the cracks. They were patient and understanding. It was very clear that their only focus was on what we needed and what they could do to help us. Not only did they NEVER push us to spend more they actually talked us into spending $1000 less! Let me repeat that. They knowingly gave up an additional $1000 just because they did not believe it was in our interest to spend it! That is a VERY rare thing to find any more. This is not anything I look forward to going though again, but when it does happen this where I will be going. Not just for the casket, but for recommendations for funeral homes and anything else we might need. I was that impressed and trust them that much!

Recently I suddenly lost my younger brother who is a single father of three children ages 18, 14,…read moreand 12. After learning the devastating news my mother and I began the horrible task of funeral planning. At the time we were deciding between a casket or a cremation. His oldest son accompanied us to the casket store but we told him to wait outside in the car.. As my mother and I sat down at the table with one of the owners (the older one) he was very abrupt in speech and did not seem at all sympathetic to our situation. For him it was business as usual I suppose. When we told him we may need a specialized casket b/c my brother happened to be obese, the older owner said, "Oh yeah, I heard we had a big boy in. How much did he weigh? Whew!!!" "That's a big dude!" My mother and I gasp at his boldness. By that time my nephew had walked in to ask a question and heard what the owner said. My nephew said, "How rude!" and walked back out. A phone call was made to the funeral home that held my brother to find out what size casket would be needed to accommodate the bigger size. Again this owner was very uncaring in his demeanor and non nonchalant as to whether he would be able to help or not. About that time some more customers came in and he turned his attention away from us and went to go help the incoming customers. The younger co-owner took over from there. I voiced my concerns about the behavior of the older owner. There were apologies on his behalf, however we did not feel the need to purchase any items from the casket store. We left the store feeling bruised and insulted. I don't plan to step foot in store again.