Here lies the late Robert Sanders, 58, at the Robert L. Adams drive-through funeral parlor in the Los Angeles area city of Compton. The funeral parlor has been in business since 1974, and is believed to be the only drive-through funeral home in southern California, according to office manager Denise Knowles-Bragg. She says the parlor offers a convenient alternative to older people who find it hard to walk, those who want to make a quick stop during the lunch hour, and the families of well-known deceased people who expect many visitors.
The Los Angeles Times profiled this establishment in an article last year. Snip:
“You can come by after work, you don’t need to deal with parking, you can sign the book outside and the family knows that you paid your respects,” said [owner Peggy Scott Adams]. “It’s a convenience thing.”
The venue provides a speedy way for well-known community folk to be viewed en masse. Seniors don’t have to leave their cars. Those who can’t stomach stepping inside a funeral home don’t have to. Families can avoid the complications of hosting a formal indoor viewing. And the disabled can roll through in their own wheelchairs — as one woman recently did.
In the 1980s, cemetery shootouts made gang members reluctant to gather for graveside services. The drive-thru’s glass partition is bulletproof, Scott Adams said, and so for a while the mortuary became a popular location for gang funerals.
(REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson, photo taken February 8, 2012)