No final ceremony for Lancaster County's poor

LINCOLN (AP) — There is no pomp and circumstance at the end of life for the very poor in Lancaster County.

And a pauper’s burial is getting more meager — cremation and a plastic box.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports advocates for the poor and some local funeral homes think the new rules, which eliminate a simple service, have gone too far.

Indigent burials by the county always have been frugal affairs: No flowers, no organ music, no cards, no headstones.

Nine years ago, the county stopped paying for burials, leaving cremation the only option unless the county attorney wanted to preserve a body...