'Ringing Off the Hook': W.Va. Undertaker Overwhelmed by Mine Tragedy

WHITESVILLE, W.Va., April 8, 2010— -- Rescue and recovery workers here haven't yet retrieved all the bodies from Monday's mine explosion, but the phone at Armstrong Funeral Home in Whitesville, W.Va., is "ringing off the hook."

"I've done this 40 years and I've never seen it this bad," said Rick Quesenberry, a casket salesman from Beckley, W.Va., who's filling in as Armstrong's undertaker while the owner has been on vacation. "It just doesn't get much worse."

With 25 miners dead and four still missing, residents say this is the single greatest loss of life the community has experienced since the Civil War. Now, survivors and funeral homes are beginning to prepare the final resting places for the fallen.

From behind a mahogany desk in his tidy, wood-paneled office, Quesenberry answered a call and listened on the phone as a family member of a miner killed in the tragedy inquired about Armstrong's services.

"They quoted you how much?" he said, raising a hand to his furrowed brow. "Well, must be because somebody else's paying for it." His words trailed off with an uneasy chuckle.

The cost of a funeral at Armstrong is close to the national average of $6,500, Quesenberry said. But some families have received quotes of much more, he said, suggesting that some of his competitors may be banking on the Massey Energy Co. footing the bill.

As families weigh the human and financial cost of the tragedy, many are turning to Armstrong Funeral Home, which is just five miles from the Upper Big Branch mine. The home is handling at least two funerals for miners killed in Monday's explosion and likely more after bodies are recovered, Quesenberry said.

While the dead will all likely receive funerals, many may ultimately be laid to rest in their own families' backyards, community members say.

"I know the Davises will probably bury theirs at home," said a Whitesville, W.Va., firefighter, who didn't want to give his name, of Timmy Davis, Sr., and nephews, Cory Davis and Josh Napper, were killed in Monday's explosion.

"The family has a lot out back" behind their home where they bury their dead, he said.