University of Central Oklahoma
TUESDAY February 9, 1993
The Student Voice Since 1903
Funeral service field takes devotion come by so easily. She was three years old and she was dead. The obituary did not give the cause of One always dies too soon - or too late. death, but her presence on this page of the And yet one's whole life is complete at that newspaper was testament to someone's loss. moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, A funeral director is the person in sociready for the summing up. ety who is called upon to attend to loss. The -Jean-Paul Sartre loss of a loved one is perhaps one of the No Exit most profound losses a person may ever experience. The funeral director not only The photograph looked like a picture prepares a body for burial, but also prepares that could be seen on any grandmother's the bereaved to deal with their loss. coffee table. A broad smile monopolized So why would someone want to make the perfectly round little face which was his living attending to the dead? Why topped off by ropes of meticulously braided would someone want to be a funeral direchair. The expression on the little girl's face tor? had the enthusiastic glee that small children Most often it is a person who feels called . Very much like a calling to the ministry. Many funeral directors say they see their work quite literally as a ministry. Jeffery Barentine, of Paylor Funeral Home in Midwest City had been a youth minister for a church before becoming a funeral director. "A lot of former ministers become funeral directors," said B arentine. Barentine said that often when someone dies, the funeral director is the first person called and it is usually the funeral director that calls the minister for the famUCO Adjunct instructor Jeanne Roberts constructs a nose ily. on armature used in the restorative art classes to teach Women are funeral service students reconstruction and cosmetic increasingly entechniques. (Photo by Wes Hale) tering the profesBy Terri King Student Writer
Welfare chief goes undercover NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's welfare chief went undercover as a welfare applicant to get a look at the bureaucracy from the bottom up and found herself being scolded. misdirected and "depersonalized." Sabol used a fake identify and wore jeans and a sweatshirt as well as a wig or scarf to keep from being recognized. An aide said she spent at least 23 days posing as a welfare recipient between February and October of last year. Sabol, who went undercover with the knowledge of Mayor David Dinkins, said she has discussed what she found with the executive in charge of income-support programs so employee training could be changed.
Uninsured's cars may be impounded TULSA, Okla, (AP) — Drivers and car owners without auto liability insurance could have their cars and trucks impounded if the vehicles are involved in an accident, under a bill introduced in the House. Rep. Larry Adair, D-Stilwell, said he wanted to do something about what he said is the growing number of drivers without liability insurance. State law currently limits the Department of Public Safety to suspending the license of an uninsured driver. Rep. Shelby Satterfield, D-Tulsa, arguedagainstit, noting many people could not afford to get their car om of impoundment and buy liability insurance at the same time.
Hillary gets letter CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Egypt's women writers are appealing to Hillary Rodham Clinton to speak out against rape and other war crimes being committed against Bosnian women in former Yugoslavia. In an open letter, the Association of Egyptian Women Writers urged Mrs. Clinton to "come out strongly in support of the international condemnation of the atrocities being perpetrated against the women of BosniaHerzegovina ..." See World Wrap, page 8
sion . Twenty-five percent of enrollment in the funeral service degree program at the University of Central Oklahoma are women. Women are often viewed by the public as natural caregivers said many funeral directors. Dr. Kenneth Curl, chairman of the college of mathematics and Science at UCO said many students studying funeral service are young people recently graduated from high school. But increasingly many more are older people studying for a second career. The funeral service program was started at the university in 1964 and was the first degree program in funeral service offered in the world. The degree in funeral service at UCO is one of only three offered in the nation and is considered a model for funeral service education in the nation, said Curl. Many funeral directors see their profession as one of caregiving. Their job is to help guide the bereaved through the necessary stages of grief so that they may come to terms with the death of a loved one in a healthy way. "The purpose of the funeral ceremony is to get people to face the death and work out their grief," said Curl. "A person may spend two to three years to fully work through the five stages of grief which are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance," said Curl. Asa Smith is funeral director and owner of Asa Smith Funeral Home in Harrah ;a small town in central Oklahoma. Smith began working in a funeral home when he was 15 years old to make extra money. He emptied trash, swept floors and answered the telephone after school. When the assistant of the funeral director he was working for died, Smith became more and more involved with the business. He received his embalmers license before he was 21 years old and has been a funeral director for more than 31 years. "It is a ministry working with grieving people. Not just anyone can do it," Smith said. "It's been very rewarding. We've been able to help so many people over the years and people don't forget that." Bart Manship, UCO senior, is a funeral See Funeral, page 3
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Valentines Editorial 2 Letters 2 Around Campus.11 Comics 11
Art Awards
UCO Archives
,Two UCO
is displaying
students were awarded the Liquitex Excellence in Art Awards for 1993 . Only 100 awards are given out each year.
"Love Handed Down" this month. See Valentine cards from the 30s to the 50s that include timeless poetic verses.
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