• That a gun-carriage and not a hearse be used throughout. • That the casket be of absolute simplicity, dark wood, that the body be not embalmed or hermetically sealed, and • That the grave be not lined with brick, cement, or stones. Regarding the latter instruction, James Roosevelt writes, “So far as we can learn, he never had discussed this with anyone. Knowing Father, we can only speculate that he regarded the embalming procedure as a distasteful invasion of privacy, and that perhaps he had an inner yearning to follow the traditional funeral liturgy, ‘Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to
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