Elderly GA Woman Evelyn Owens Dabney's Burial Delayed Because Funeral Home Filed for Bankruptcy & Shut Down

Evelyn Owens Dabney, 99, burial on hold after funeral home she bought pre-needs contract from in 1985, went bankrupt & shut down three years ago.

SHAME: Evelyn Owens Dabney, who died last Saturday, the same day she turned 99, is facing one more injustice in death -- her burial is postponed because the funeral home went bankrupt. According to WSB-TV, Dabney, who is black, prepaid for her funeral with Sellers Brothers Funeral Home, which has since closed. She paid more than $2,000 when she purchased a pre-needs contract in 1985. The family didn't know the funeral home went bankrupt and shut down three years ago. Now this woman can't be buried because the family doesn't have the funds to do so. Shameful.

“This is criminal what has taken place,” said bankruptcy trustee Neil Gordon, who is handling the case. He said more families may have a similar rude awakening. “They paid this money in trust to this funeral home, business to be held for their needs or their family member’s needs when that time arrived,” Gordon said.“And it wasn’t done. The money was spent, it was diverted. But it was never reported to the court, it was never reported to me and we do not know where it is,” Gordon said.He said the funeral home owners did not place the pre-needs payments in proper separate secured accounts. Source

I'm sure Ms. Dabney lived through a lot of unpleasant things in America -- racism, Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan and the struggle for civil rights. The last thing this woman deserves is to be lying in a morgue waiting to be laid to rest. This just makes one think whether purchasing a pre-needs contract is in one's best interest.