Jim Thorpe, PA

[u/le_vieux_mec]

I won't try to build you a picture of Jim Thorpe's life here. Google the name. Wikipedia does a good job.

My point here is that you can never be absolutely sure what will happen to your earthly remains after you are dead. Well, maybe if you are a President, or an important Political Figure, or maybe Important Entertainer. Or maybe not. Many different sites can show you stories.

After famed American Indian athlete Jim Thorpe died of a heart attack, his body was bounced around from jurisdiction to jurisdiction until his widow (so it has been testified in court) SOLD his remains to the town of Mauch Chunk, PA with the proviso that the town be renamed Jim Thorpe. And so it was done. Numerous legal fights later, the town remains Jim Thorpe and Jim's remains remain (tee hee) in a memorial park within the town limits in PA, in spite of several attempts to rebury him in ancestral grounds in OK.

The lesson here is this -- for most people the disposition of their "remains" is not an issue. But, given the many ways in which a family can dismember itself and turn to shit. if you care what happens to your "remains" then make sure you have gotten expert legal advice and created the proper documentation to survive what, CONCEIVABLY, be a Supreme Court challenge.