A Priceless Burden: Indigent Burials at Leon County’s ‘Pauper’s Cemetery’

Resting behind a rusting red gate and situated just off a dry dirt road is Leon Serenity Cemetery. The landscape is markedly absent engraved marble headstones and bright bouquets of flowers decorating gravesites. This barren resting place is reserved for the unidentified and the indigent.

The death of a loved one is always an emotional struggle, but that struggle is many times paired with financial strain. Funerals are expensive. In 2014, the national median cost of a funeral was $7,181. Embalming and preparation of a body may cost as much as $1,000 alone. With costs increasing, Leon County has seen a rise in those passing without the necessary funds even for a simple burial. To accommodate, the county’s 2017 burial budget was raised from $34,415 to $64,400. While this measure helps alleviate some issues, there are still considerable difficulties in covering the funeral costs of the poor and unidentified.

See Nada Hassanein, A Priceless Burden: Indigent Burials at Leon County’s ‘Pauper’s Cemetery’, Tallahassee Democrat, June 24, 2017.