Hi, When I was a squad leader in Tarleton ROTC, Franklin Conger, a former fellow student of Stephenville High School died unexpectedly His mom requested a Military Funeral and our squad were the paulbearers and took turns sitting up all noght in the Higinbotham ( Now Stephenville) Funeral home. Euell Jones filled us in on reasons behind our burial customs. I had learned some helping dig graves in Johnsville, Pony Creek, and Selden Hatchett Cemetey. Don't think you wont to hear some- but Irish wakes were held until the Rigor Mortis set in "and the soul shook free of the body". Dad said it was not unheard of for a corpse to jerk or start to sit up. This procedure took 3 days and 3 nights, and was part of the reasomn some Baptists believed in other than the Catholic version of the Cruxifiction- The body of Christ was in the grave 3 days and three nights to remove all question of a Catatonic trance or drugs such as Romeo took in the classic play- Romeo and Juliet. Most bodies were kept in the home front room in the 1930's even if they were embalmed in town and the body of a believer was usually carried to his church for the funeral. All present took part in the singing and friends dug his grave. Sometimes in Selden and Indian Creek they had to blast rock out to complete the grave in time, before Diesel backhoes. I have heard reports such as when the cemetery between Meridian and the Brazos was moved through Kopperell when Lake Whitney flooded it. Some had come back to life when they did not have the breath to ripple a candle flame and felt cold? The Texas Frontier sitting up with the deceased, accor=ding to Ewell Jones, was to keep cats and varmits away from the corpse. My dad sat up with his Great Grandad Hatchett or his Uncle Gus, who married a Shaw, and at about 2 AM, a cat came through the screen, whick woke them up completely- but had better close- ask your older relatives or an elberly Funeral director about such if you are still curious. Take care, Charles Wyly