Is it still possible to buy caskets of the same type John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe were buried in?

Answer 1

Although the manufacturers of the original caskets of President Kennedy and of Marilyn Monroe are out of business, both designs - with minor changes - are still in production and can be bought either directly or through funeral homes, provided you are willing and able to spend that much money for one of these luxury caskets.

The Kennedy part of the question is somewhat more difficult to be answered because for the late President two different caskets had been used. For the transport from Dallas to Washington, DC it was a bronze casket manufactured by the (former) Elgin Casket Company of Elgin, Ill. After this casket had been damaged during the loading / unloading process, it was replaced by a mahogany casket which was used for the burial.

President Kennedy's Elgin casket had been a double lid "Handley" model with a "Britannia" (that is: partially brushed) finish and an amber (reddish) transparent tint. A few years after President Kennedy's death, the Elgin Company changed the flaring round corner design of the "Handley" somewhat by giving it a more pronounced urn shape. After Elgin had been bought by the renown mattress producer Simmons in 1968, the "Handley" model was replaced by the Winchester model, which differed from its predecessor only by some embossed ornaments. The casket is manufactured nowadays as "Winchester Twin Lock Amber Britannia" by VerPlank Enterprises of Iron City, TN. The design is shown in the VerPlank Online casket catalog.

President Kennedy's second coffin, a mahogany unit, was a very plain round corner design manufactured by the Marsellus Casket Company of Syracuse, NY under the type designation 710. In 1997, the Marsellus family sold the company to SCI (Service Corporation International) of Houston, which in 2003 decided to close down the Marsellus factory. The brand name Marsellus and several of the company's most famous designs - among them the "Seven-Ten" - were bought by the Batesville Casket Company of Hillenbrand Industries. Since then, Batesville has manufactured the "Kennedy casket" under the designation (Marsellus) "President". The Batesville model looks still the same as the Marsellus 710. The main difference consist in the fact that Batesville does no longer offer an almost unlimited choice of outer (casket top / handles / finishes) and inner (textile material and colors of the lining) custom designs. Nowadays, the "President" is available only in a perfection half couch style (split lid) and in a full couch style (undivided lid), but, for example, not with a "hinged cap" top as in the original Kennedy casket. Also, an inner bronze or copper liner is no longer available. It seems that Batesville has strictly limited the choice of available varieties of the "President" design in order to keep the (nevertheless still high) price of the casket within reasonable bounds.

The successor models to both "Kennedy caskets" - the VerPlank "Winchester" and the Batesville "President" can be bought both through funeral directors and through several Online casket shops.

Marilyn Monroe was buried in a luxury coffin which has been called the "Cadillac of caskets": a silver finished 15 ga / 48 oz (that is: extra strong and heavy) "Masterpiece" bronze casket with a hand tufted champagne colored velvet, satin and silk interior manufactured by the (former) Belmont Casket Company of Columbus, Ohio. The casket was equipped with a hermetically sealing double lid (without inner glass panel). Although the Belmont factory closed down in 1979, the "Masterpiece" design is still in production. It is manufactured nowadays under the same name by VerPlank Enterprises of Tennessee, although the original design underwent a few minor changes: while the beading ornaments of the "Monroe casket" still exist, the swing bar handles look slightly different now. Interestingly however, VerPlank still offers the Masterpiece in 48oz bronze and with a silver finished exterior, which makes the casket a kind of replica of the Monroe casket. Pictures of the "Silver Twin Seal Masterpiece" are shown in the VerPlank Online casket catalog.