The Undertaking

Starry says the David Lee Funeral Home averages roughly 110 burials and 90 cremations a year. On the expense side of the business are salaries and benefits (there are four full-time employees), rent (Starry’s mother owns the building), utilities, maintenance and repair on a hearse and several other vehicles that the business uses for errands and funeral processions, equipment and supplies, and advertising and marketing.

“The perception is that we make a lot of money, but that’s not true,” Starry says. “When I graduated from college in 1985, funeral service was the lowest entry-level position for a four-year degree, starting at $16,000 a year.” The median salary for 2006 graduates from the University of Minnesota is $32,500. A funeral home manager with 10 years’ experience in Minnesota can expect to make between $60,000 and $70,000, according to LuBrant.

The majority of a funeral director’s business comes from word-of-mouth referrals. How her clients talk about their experience determines how often the phone rings, Starry says: “The end result is the same—the casket goes into the ground or the urn into the vault—but it’s how you get there that separates you from others. Service drives this business. Reputation is very important.”

That isn’t the only reason she takes time to listen and understand each grieving survivor. “You can’t take people’s pain away, but you can do little things,” Starry says. “You can feel it when someone has had a good experience with someone dying. I feel bad when people don’t have the best experience possible. You can come through a funeral saying, ‘That was good.’”